Every now and then she gets a little bit nervous / that the best of all the years have gone by
Chilean director Sebastián Lelio peppers his new picture Gloria Bell with enough ‘70s and early ‘80s pop songs to make a Gen X’er weep, but often it’s hard to distinguish whether the songs are meant to match the film’s themes, or the other way around. But to watch Julianne Moore, as the titular Gloria, in her car, alone, singing her heart out along with Olivia Newton-John’s “A Little More Love” is to experience a sublime and intimate moment with a fully realized and utterly unique character. Scenes like these make Leilo’s reliance on musical crutches forgivable.
With screenwriter Alice Johnson Boher, Leilo, a Best Foreign Film Oscar winner for 2017’s A Fantastic Woman, has made an American version of his original 2013 Chilean film Gloria. I haven’t seen the original, so this review won’t offer you any sort of compare and contrast; instead, I’ll take a look at what he’s done with his new version on its own merits. As a portrait of a 50-something divorced woman looking for love in Los Angeles, Leilo’s film often can be uncomfortably depressing. But it’s also a sharply perceptive meditation on the difficulty of finding and sustaining a connection at an age when emotional baggage has piled up to such an extent that overcoming it can seem insurmountable.
Such is the dilemma Gloria (Moore), a long-divorced insurance agent with two grown children, faces when she meets Arnold (John Turturro) at one of the dance clubs she frequents. (Quick side note: do 50-somethings really cruise dance clubs to meet each other in the age of online dating? Maybe they do in Chile, but watching the club scene play out here in a modern American urban setting feels a little dated, and like a throw-back to‘70s films like Looking for Mr. Goodbar). Arnold and Gloria hit it off, but Arnold, more recently divorced than Gloria, and with two very needy older daughters, can’t seem to extricate himself from his familial obligations to devote himself fully to Gloria. While Arnold’s behavior, as seen in two galling, similarly awful scenes, is the most egregious, Gloria isn’t completely without fault. A scene in which she brings Arnold to her son Peter (Michael Cera)’s birthday party, only to spend it reminiscing with her ex-husband (Brad Garrett), showcases Gloria’s obliviousness and casual cruelty, and is by far the film’s best acted scene.
But the beauty of Gloria — and of Moore’s rendering of her — is that she never gives up. Inherently positive, Gloria handles her day-to-day life with determination and the faith that she’s trying to live her best life. From yoga classes and laughter seminars to dinners with her concerned mother (Holland Taylor) who ominously warns her, “Life goes by in a flash — like that!” to forgiving Arnold his mistakes one too many times, Gloria never lets setbacks keep her down for long. A scene in which Gloria dances at a friend’s daughter’s wedding to Laura Branigan’s 1982 hit “Gloria” (of course) shows Moore’s deep understanding of the character. Her face changes almost imperceptibly from joy to momentary consternation and back to joy, and we know she will continue to dance and do what she loves, and won’t ever stop seeking what she wants. It’s a beautiful, private moment that we feel privileged to witness.
Supporting Moore and Turturro’s strong performances is an equally fine group of players. Garrett’s small but key role as Gloria’s ex proves he’s as adept a dramatic actor as a comedic one. And Cera, as Gloria’s angry son, channels his usual nervous energy into a realistic portrait of a young man overly protective of his mother, and struggling with his own marriage. Rita Wilson, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and especially Sean Astin, in a surprisingly pivotal role, handle their work here with the sort of low key but effective energy that pervades the film.
The stellar acting ensemble makes it easy to overlook the movie’s few drawbacks. Cinematographer Natasha Braier imbues with the picture with a dusky, filmy quality that often gives it a dark, grainy look that ends up being distracting; you find yourself wondering if set lights were hard to come by. And some of Leilo’s pacing choices seem a little off. While his intent may be to allow us to see Gloria’s interior life, many of the scenes in which she executes monotonous tasks — like putting her laundry away — feel oddly mannered, and like stylistic pretensions.
As a character study of an older woman protagonist simply living her life — something we see far too little on the big screen — Leilo’s picture is refreshing, though, and Moore’s fierce performance alone makes the film worth seeing. Besides, those pop songs that dominate the soundtrack are catchy, even if their use fits the mood a bit too perfectly: “No More Lonely Nights”? “Alone Again (Naturally)”? But as soon as you hear the classic opening strains of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” you’re in, and you get it.
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Gloria Bell opens today at Bay Area theaters.
