Gail, I'm not much of a movie person, but one recent favorite of mine (and one you might enjoy, being a fellow statesman) is A Love Song for Bobby Long, an independent film from 2004 set in New Orleans, starring John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson. It's based on the novel Off Magazine Street, by Ronald Everett Capps -- lazy plot, heavy on atmosphere, and one of the more realistic depictions I've seen of Louisiana life. If you liked The Big Easy, this is NOT the movie for you.
Travolta plays a retired alcoholic English professor, a misfit who spends his days quoting Auden, Shakespeare, and the usual suspects, along with a writer friend. When an intimate female friend of theirs dies, her sober daughter (Johansson) comes to live with them. They get her into Tulane; she restores them to hope, and belief in a few lost ideals. Bittersweet. In tone and mood, I would say it leans toward Carson McCullers, maybe Tennesse Williams.
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