Review of Gloria (2014) by Ananisapta — 27 Oct 2014

This film is elegantly written, directed, and acted. It is also profoundly insightful as a bit of character analysis, with some surprises near the end and an upbeat finish. There's a subtlety of execution here that I tremendously admire!

Gloria is a woman of mediocre assets who has shed her alcoholic, abusive husband, dotes on her children, drinks too much, and hangs around in bars. One evening she is approached by a sort of middle-aged dream-boat who fits her desires to a 't' and seems much enamored of her. He wines and dines her, takes her places, beds her passionately, and is soon the center of her life. But there are a few problems: he is prone to unexplained absences and phone calls from his other family. Pretty soon, Gloria is mad enough to shoot him.

SPOILER ALERT!

Most reviewers take Gloria's beau at face value when he says he's divorced. He also says his daughters are in their twenties. Near the end of the film, it becomes clear that he still lives with his wife and his daughters, who are much younger than he said. Probably everything he said about himself was a lie. His initial approach to her makes a lot more sense when you recognize that he is looking for a vulnerable, middle-aged woman who won't make too many demands. The guy is a superb actor who seems to have fooled most of the critics as well as Gloria. She finds redemption at the end, shedding her clownish glasses and starting to dance like a real hot Latina. One hopes she has put her anger, her drinking, and her vulnerability behind her.