Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with my opinion on two upcoming flicks starring the Goddess of Beauty herself, Scarlett Johansson. First up is the drama A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG, costarring John Travolta and Gabriel Macht, followed by THE GOOD WOMAN, a film version of Oscar Wilde's original play costarring Helen Hunt and Tom Wilkinson.

A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG

I'm gonna start with LOVE SONG for many reasons... One, I prefer it of the two Johansson films I saw, and two, Johansson just got nominated for a Golden Globe for her work in LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG. Of course, the lovely Miss Scarlett shows a lot more skin in LOVE SONG, but being the classy guy I am I didn't use that as a reason for placing this review first... classy guy am I.

Strangely enough, for the first 30 minutes of the movie I didn't think I was going to be writing a positive review. Travolta was good, but pushing dangerously close to his trademarked over-the-top caricature work with his portrayal of the titular Bobby Long, a wreck of a man nostrils deep in booze and self-loathing. Johansson was gorgeous, as usual, but not terribly interesting... a trailer lady who loves eating peanut butter on a spoon by itself and has the world's biggest trailer trash loser boyfriend.

Her estranged mother dies before our story begins, but Johansson doesn't know it because her loser boyfriend forgot to tell her about it. Although she runs off, leaving the dickwad behind, she still misses the funeral and meets, for the first time, Bobby Long and his good friend Lawson, a struggling novelist who is tied to Bobby in some dark and tragic way that we don't know about until a fireside chat that concludes with the lucky Gabriel Macht assuming the spooning position with my lovely Ms. Johansson.

Of course, the house Bobby Long and Lawson live in is Johansson's mother's house and they claim a right to it. Johansson is trying to get away from that trailer park, so she ends up moving in with Bobby, claiming a part of it is her house, too. That's when the bickering starts.

The whole film has this lazy day, dirty New Orleans feel to it, which kind of contributed to my suspicion of it being a movie I wouldn't particularly enjoy in the first half hour, but once Johansson and Travolta start bitching at each other and putting each other down the film evolves into an almost black character comedy. You just wait for these two people to be put in the same room with each other again so you can see the claws come out.

Overall, I found that I got to really like all the characters, that Travolta's performance is actually quite nuanced and the reason for me not really liking him at the beginning of the film was all by design. He wants you to not trust this Bobby Long fellow, he wants you to view him as a loser and a joke because gradually you begin to see him as a human being. Without siding with Johansson's character and feeling the same "God, I'd hate to have to put up with that guy in the house" feeling, Bobby Long's character arc really doesn't have anywhere to go.

The tragedy that compels Macht to stay with Bobby and have his great novel under a constant word by word scrutiny by this former teacher/current drunkard is a real tragedy and one that makes you go, "Oh, fuck... Well, I can see that..." A lot of the tragedy story working has to do with Macht's delivery of it. Macht damn near steals this movie and I bet your bottom dollar you'll see a whole lot of this guy. He's an emerging talent that hasn't really gotten much to do yet, but he really shows his colors in this costarring role.

Johansson is damn good, but I don't expect her to walk away with the gold come GLOBES time. A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG is a small movie filled with good performances, but, outside of Macht's work, none of it was a real surprise to me. The film's a heart-warmer by the end and one that I found very enjoyable, despite my worries at the beginning of the story.

THE GOOD WOMAN

Based on the Oscar Wilde play, this story centers on a lady (played by Helen Hunt) named Ms. Erlynne, who uses men and their fortunes, but is quickly approaching the age where that may not be an option anymore. She hears of a newlywed couple (the man's super rich) and heads off to start some trouble.

The newlyweds are Scarlett Johansson and Mark Umbers, and they quickly become entangled in Ms. Erlynne's nasty web. Fortunately for us, there is more to the story than Helen Hunt trying to seduce Johansson's richie husband... that might not even be Ms. Erlynne's ultimate goal. You also have Stephen Campbell Moore (BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS) as Lord Darlington, a thin, handsome and rich playboy with a hard-on for Johansson, despite the fact that she's married to his best friend. He brings a lot of humor and heartache to the movie.

But the real star of this film, the one that makes it as enjoyable as it ended up being is Tom Wilkinson, who was the best thing about the Oscar contender IN THE BEDROOM a couple years ago and proves to outshine everybody in THE GOOD WOMAN, even the radiant Ms. Johansson.

He's got the best character, a lovesick Romeo bent on wooing Ms. Erlynne, but also well aware that the only reason she shows any interest in a man his age is the fat bank account he has. He's made fun of by the richie Country Club elite for his infatuation and desire to spend the rest of his years with a woman he connects with. He's sweet and funny and is worth seeking out the movie just for his work.

Wilde's trademark wit is on full display here. None of the situations fall into cliche, none of the characters are exactly as they seem, none of what's assumed to be happing is necessarily happening and throughout you have the costumed elite commenting on what's going on, be it ladies in big dresses at tea or lords in tuxes smoking cigars on yachts.

Ultimately, from start to finish this is a fully enjoyable movie, but a little easier to distance yourself from than A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG, which hits a little harder because it's not nearly as light and witty as THE GOOD WOMAN. But I'd say THE GOOD WOMAN is a lot easier to watch, a lot more enjoyable through and through. I can't believe whoever is putting this out in the states (if they even have US distribution... if they don't, it's a shame... I hope this doesn't get dumped direct to video) didn't push to get Wilkinson in on the Awards rush. He's a shoe in for best supporting actor.

Anyway, that's about it from me on these two flicks. Sorry for the delay in getting them out. Throw together an impromptu week in Toronto immediately after AFM in November, plus BNAT, Christmas, the cold/flu/death incarnate that hit me right after BNAT and my inherent laziness and you get reviews from a fest that happened almost 2 months ago. However, neither of these films is out, so at least I didn't wait until they got their releases!!!

I'll be back with more shortly! Keep your eyes on the site, squirts!

-Quint