Movies like this come and go and are easy to miss. Shainee Gabel is a director with one feature credit to her name, basically, and this is it. She hasn't made another movie since, and there's nothing about her really, to discover in a quick Google search. Where did she go, and what happened to her?
And as one reviewer asked, how was she ablet to recruit Scarlett Johansson and John Travolta to spend three weeks in New Orleans one August staring in this one? That reviewer indicated that it was "the script" that drew them to these roles, and maybe that's the case. And then I start to feel bad for Travolta, because other than Pulp Fiction and maybe a very short list of two or three other films, he's not exactly known for appearing in films with good films -- either as rated by critics or viewers. Johansson, on the other hand, has typically been better at picking films with "good scripts," but she's also done her fair share of Marvel movies -- some good, yes, but once she shifted to Marvel, it limited her ability to take on the "smaller film" roles like this.
Even with Travolta and Johansson topping the credits, this movie sat unwatched in my collection for years. I didn't have a clue what the movie was about, and I've never heard anyone talk about it. On Letterboxd, it has fewer than 700 reviews -- compared to popular movies from the same year that might have a few hundred thousand reviews. Why do some movies, even with the star power of Travolta and Johansson, go unviewed, not just by me, but apparently by everyone?
A movie like this is story-driven. Some call it a "character study" with a "plot that isn't that important." Well, I would agree that it is a character study, but no, the plot does matters. The plot is peeling back the layers of the onion, and the onion is: Who are Bobby (Travolta), Pursy (Johansson), and Lawson (Gabriel Macht)? And why should we be willing to invest a few minutes of our time to find out?
The setting is New Orleans, and the situation is Purcy's mother's death. Purcy never knew her mother and has had little to no contact with her. When she arrives in New Orleans, she arrives a day after the funeral. Lawson and Bobby live in her mother's house, but she has no idea who they are. Bobby, we learn, is an English professor in a past life. He's now about 50, and Lawson was his star graduate assistant. Lawson is a "writer," and he's been working on the great American novel for nine years, making absolutely no progress.
Maybe Lawson doesn't even want to be a writer? Maybe he's "doing it" for Bobby, but why? And why doesn't Bobby write? Why does he expect Lawson to be the writer? Neither Bobby nor Lawson do much. They live in a house that has nothing it except books and few lawn chairs. They drink and find ways to kill time, but they aren't actually living. Bobby speaks in quotes from classic novels, quizzing Lawson on where the quotes come from.
Meanwhile, Pursy has decided to stay in the New Orleans and live in the house. She's a high school dropout, and both Lawson and Bobby have decided to help her earn her GED. She starts by reading all of the classics, many of them from her mom's book collection -- Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Jack London, Willa Carther, and so on. Was she a reader before coming to New Orleans? Is she reading now as a way to learn more about the mother she never knew or is it simply the influence of living in the same space with Bobby and Lawson? Maybe if they had had other interests, she would have drifted towards those interests, too?
Inevitably, Lawson finds himself attracted to Pursy, even though he has a girlfriend. Pursy had a boyfriend before she came to New Orleans, but he seems forgotten. And while they may start to grow closer, Bobby expresses the fear of being left alone. Blood in the toilet also indicates that he's either dying or perhaps has some medical condition -- serious or not, who can tell? He fears going to the doctor to find out.
And yet, as we grow to know these characters and as they perhaps get to know one another, it's still not clear what the ultimate end to their coming together will be. Lawson and Bobby have helped Pursy discover her love of reading, and they have supported her pursuit of the GED. Pursy has helped them see that they are alcoholics, convincing, at least Lawson, that he needs to stop drinking before it's too late. Their lives seem to be improving, better now that they have been brought together through the death of Pursy's mom... but is the improvement temporary?
As the movie draws to the close, there's a "big reveal" that might be somewhat obvious, but that's okay. Pursy, Bobby, and Lawson still need to negotiate what "the reveal" means, and what they will do moving forward. I appreciate the way the movie circles back and echoes the opening scene, and then without feeling the need to "explain" everything, the ending concisely and succinctly wraps it all up in a way that feels "wholesome" and satisfying.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
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