Review of Gloria Bell (2019) by Markhreviews — 23 Mar 2019

Perhaps “Gloria Bell” could more aptly be re-named “Lost in Translation.” Writer/Director Sebastian Lelio (2017 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for “A Fantastic Woman”) has taken his 2013 Spanish-language film “Gloria,” originally set in Santiago, Chile, and updated the story in current-day Los Angeles. One wonders why.

It’s appropriate to applaud this film’s focus on mature adults, particularly given the recent steady diet of superhero films and an obsession with films emphasizing teens and young adults. The life of a 50-something divorcee navigating middle-adulthood would seem to offer many topics worth exploring. Unfortunately, “Gloria” has no big ideas to communicate. While we’re teased with brief observations about financial insecurity, the loneliness of divorce and the inevitable complexities of family, “Gloria” offers only a series of glancing blows, rather than taking a stand or making a point.

Our protagonist, Gloria Bell (Julianne Moore), is a study in contradictions. In many facets of her life, she is all diligent earnestness and perky optimism: consoling a distraught co-worker, babysitting for a son with an absent wife, providing emotional support for a daughter preparing to move to Sweden to marry a big-wave surfer, coping with the noises of an upstairs neighbor in total meltdown. Soon enough, we learn that, beneath all this responsibility, Gloria is a woman of simple pleasures: “If the world blows up, I hope I go down dancing.” You’d think a woman with this clear-eyed outlook would find a partner equally sensible. Instead, Gloria gets saddled with Arnold (John Turturro), who aspires to a soulful romance, but is inextricably tethered to an ex-wife and two daughters who collectively make Glenn Close’s character in “Fatal Attraction” appear emotionally independent. He takes every phone call, meets every emotional need, all at the expense of his relationship with Gloria. If only he’d read “Co-Dependent No More.”.

Gloria’s motivations and feelings, too, are less than self-evident. When alone, she seems to alternate between comfortable aloneness and feeling uncomfortably lonely. Similarly, she seems self-contained and self-reliant when helping others, while projecting a subterranean neediness when trying to move forward with Arnold.

What is remarkable about “Gloria” is Moore in the title role. She takes a character who is filled with internal inconsistencies and infuses her with a life force that consistently holds our attention and our compassion. Over the years, Moore’s skill has made us care about a variety of unlikeable characters, from the shrewish wife in Robert Altman’s 1993 “Short Cuts” to a porn star in “Boogie Nights” (1997) to a predatory, incestuous mother in “Savage Grace” (2002). In “Gloria,” she’s done something even more difficult: she’s taken a muddled character and made her unremarkable story compelling viewing.