A review of the enjoyable new film “Gloria Bell”
It is not easy, being a person of maturer years who has been single for some time, to start a new relationship and I can testify to that from personal experience. It probably helps if, as a woman in her late 50s, you have the body, the clothes and the confidence of the titular West Coast American played beautifully – in all sense of the word – by Julianne More who executive produced the work.
This is a close English-language remake of the apparently (I haven’t seen it) grittier Spanish-language original (the 2013 “Gloria”) by Chilean director and co-writer Sebastián Lelio.
All the male characters in this movie – notably Gloria’s lover Arnold (John Turturro) – are weak, vain and deeply flawed but, with the aid of music (there is a great soundtrack of 1970s ballads and disco classics) and dancing (we start and finish on the dance floor) and a little help from her elderly mother, Gloria survives so well that the Laura Branigan song at the finale becomes a feminist anthem.