To put it mildly, Gloria Bell (played by Julianne Moore) lives a bit of a mundane life. She's divorced with two adult kids; her son (Michael Cera) has a child of his own, while her pregnant daughter (Caren Pistorius) is moving to Sweden with her athletic boyfriend. Gloria works at a milquetoast office job, driving a dinky car to work and singing pop tunes to pass the time. When she comes home, there's almost always a hairless cat, which finds its way back into the house despite her repeated attempts to do away with it. At nights, Gloria doesn't sleep much, mostly because her landlord's son seems to be in the middle of a mental breakdown upstairs. The only source of solace for this mid-life crisis comes when she makes trips to dance clubs, where she mingles with other (divorced) singles and dances the night away. After that, it's rinse and repeat, often with an experience with a boring or commitment-phobic man thrown in for good measure.
This is the life for Gloria Bell. But it's not all bad.
An American remake of Chilean director Sebastián Lelio's 2013 film Gloria (Lelio is at the helm here as well), Gloria Bell brings a decidedly artistic sensibility to a sub-genre that is often plagued by cruder, less robustly honest portrayals of middle age. Lelio's remake is sometimes awkward and sometimes delightful, but it feels rooted most firmly in a kind of purposeful tedium, which captures the audience's attention without ever ignoring the doldrums of an ordinary existence.
However, this is certainly not a film where the lack of excitement drives the plot forward. Beyond the swirl of family issues, Lelio's story begins to accelerate with the arrival of Arnold (John Turturro), a fellow divorcee who takes an immediate liking to Gloria at one of her favorite dance spots. But like everything in her life, Gloria's romance with Arnold ends up being a rather bumpy road of insecurities and personality clashes, which Lelio captures with an unflinching eye. The film operates in the generic space of a dramedy, but I found it to be perhaps even more difficult to classify; Gloria's life feels like a comedy of errors, where the seriousness of each development is undermined by just how silly it all can be.
The technical merits back up this often delightful feeling of uncertainty, as Lelio and cinematographer Natasha Braier bring a whole lot to the table on a pure stylistic level. Lelio, an arthouse darling for films like A Fantastic Woman and Disobedience, is a master of careful shot composition, demonstrating a rare talent for the incremental development of tension between characters. You can always tell whether a suburban anxiety story like this is actually working based on the strength of the inevitable dinner scene, and Lelio allows this to be a space for quiet conflicts and implied grudges. Aesthetically speaking, he's assisted by Braier's balance of the naturalistic and the glossy, uniting more adventurous cinematographic digressions (Braier shot The Neon Demon, so this is no surprise) with the drab truth of Gloria's aggressively average life.
Of course, the river flows back to Moore, and she delivers a wonderfully nuanced portrayal of a complicated woman. Gloria is something of an enigma-- relatable for her everyday miseries and desires, but often a character of confusing priorities and motives. Her journey has its share of peaks and valleys, but it's a testament to Moore's performance that we're rooting for her through it all, even when she gives John Turturro's amusement park operator an undeserved second chance. Gloria is endlessly likable and often downright charming in the face of brutal obstacles, which Moore enhances at every moment with an inspired and indefatigable demeanor.
Watching the film, I was repeatedly reminded of a quote from a review of Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name by critic Jordan Hoffman, who called the classic romance, "a masterful work because of the specificity of its details." Though Lelio's Gloria Bell is not a masterpiece or even particularly masterful (the film feels consistently minor and limited, often to an unsatisfying extent), it does have an observant and understated style, one that lends itself well to the accumulation of grace notes in Gloria's frustrating life. Every added wrinkle or strange inconvenience leads us to a further understanding of her headspace, accentuated by an intimate performance by Moore that makes such a repetitive life worth examining. We've seen mid-life crisis dramas like Gloria Bell before, but Lelio and Moore's combined talents make this a worthy addition to the pantheon.
THE FINAL GRADE: B (7.2/10)
Images courtesy of A24
This is the life for Gloria Bell. But it's not all bad.
An American remake of Chilean director Sebastián Lelio's 2013 film Gloria (Lelio is at the helm here as well), Gloria Bell brings a decidedly artistic sensibility to a sub-genre that is often plagued by cruder, less robustly honest portrayals of middle age. Lelio's remake is sometimes awkward and sometimes delightful, but it feels rooted most firmly in a kind of purposeful tedium, which captures the audience's attention without ever ignoring the doldrums of an ordinary existence.
However, this is certainly not a film where the lack of excitement drives the plot forward. Beyond the swirl of family issues, Lelio's story begins to accelerate with the arrival of Arnold (John Turturro), a fellow divorcee who takes an immediate liking to Gloria at one of her favorite dance spots. But like everything in her life, Gloria's romance with Arnold ends up being a rather bumpy road of insecurities and personality clashes, which Lelio captures with an unflinching eye. The film operates in the generic space of a dramedy, but I found it to be perhaps even more difficult to classify; Gloria's life feels like a comedy of errors, where the seriousness of each development is undermined by just how silly it all can be.
The technical merits back up this often delightful feeling of uncertainty, as Lelio and cinematographer Natasha Braier bring a whole lot to the table on a pure stylistic level. Lelio, an arthouse darling for films like A Fantastic Woman and Disobedience, is a master of careful shot composition, demonstrating a rare talent for the incremental development of tension between characters. You can always tell whether a suburban anxiety story like this is actually working based on the strength of the inevitable dinner scene, and Lelio allows this to be a space for quiet conflicts and implied grudges. Aesthetically speaking, he's assisted by Braier's balance of the naturalistic and the glossy, uniting more adventurous cinematographic digressions (Braier shot The Neon Demon, so this is no surprise) with the drab truth of Gloria's aggressively average life.
Of course, the river flows back to Moore, and she delivers a wonderfully nuanced portrayal of a complicated woman. Gloria is something of an enigma-- relatable for her everyday miseries and desires, but often a character of confusing priorities and motives. Her journey has its share of peaks and valleys, but it's a testament to Moore's performance that we're rooting for her through it all, even when she gives John Turturro's amusement park operator an undeserved second chance. Gloria is endlessly likable and often downright charming in the face of brutal obstacles, which Moore enhances at every moment with an inspired and indefatigable demeanor.
Watching the film, I was repeatedly reminded of a quote from a review of Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name by critic Jordan Hoffman, who called the classic romance, "a masterful work because of the specificity of its details." Though Lelio's Gloria Bell is not a masterpiece or even particularly masterful (the film feels consistently minor and limited, often to an unsatisfying extent), it does have an observant and understated style, one that lends itself well to the accumulation of grace notes in Gloria's frustrating life. Every added wrinkle or strange inconvenience leads us to a further understanding of her headspace, accentuated by an intimate performance by Moore that makes such a repetitive life worth examining. We've seen mid-life crisis dramas like Gloria Bell before, but Lelio and Moore's combined talents make this a worthy addition to the pantheon.
THE FINAL GRADE: B (7.2/10)
Images courtesy of A24
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