Battered and deep-fried wasn't enough for "A Love Song for Bobby Long."

So smothered in self-conscious Southern gothic, the film feels as if it's been drowned in gravy without even the benefit of a biscuit on the side to sop it all up.

At least for a while, that is.

Shainee Gabel's movie does grow on you as John Travolta, Scarlett Johansson and especially Gabriel Macht eventually flesh their characters out and make them feel lived-in.

In adapting Ronald Everett Capps' novel "Off Magazine Street" into her first feature film, writer-director Gabel produces some lines and images that seriously clang as cliches. (She previously co-wrote and co-directed the documentary "Anthem.")

There's Travolta as the titular character, sitting on the front porch of a dilapidated house outside New Orleans, drunk all day on cheap vodka. Bloated and sporting a shock of white hair, Bobby Long frequently entertains his equally unmotivated neighbors by singing and playing the acoustic guitar. (You almost hope Travolta will break into "Sandy" from the "Grease" soundtrack. It certainly couldn't have hurt.)