Gloria Bell (2019) is the latest Sebastián Lelio film, whose past films include Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman (2017) and Disobedience (2018), both of which I enjoyed. It stars Julianne Moore as the titular free-spirited woman who moonlights as a club dancer and falls for the suave Arnold (John Turturro). Does Lelio continue his upward trajectory as a filmmaker in the industry, or is it his first stumble?
Most of the time, English-language remakes of foreign films don’t turn out all that well. There are a few exceptions (The Departed comes to mind), but usually they are just surface-level, audience-pandering messes that lose all the nuance and intention of the original. Add in the fact that this is a director remaking his OWN film (Lelio’s 2013 film Gloria) and there were numerous red flags going in that had me apprehensive. However, I trusted the director after enjoying both of his previous two films, and as he makes the leap into American cinema, I was open-minded and hoping he could successfully make the transition.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Under the Silver Lake and why I think most critics missed the entire point of the film due to their older age preventing them from connecting to the protagonist. A similar phenomenon is happening here with Gloria Bell, except now I am the one not connecting to the central character due to my youth. I had vague sympathy for all the major characters as I often do, but all of the tiny moments that critics swooned over meant nothing to me. Lelio takes a lot of care in the minutia here, with lots of tiny moments adding up to an immersive experience that a middle-aged person might recognize, but none of them resonated with me. So I must tread carefully not to criticize this film too much, recognizing that there is a target audience for it that I am not a part of.
That’s not to say the film is without flaws, even in spite of this precaution. I was not thrilled with the meandering, lackadaisical style of this film. Scenes are not very economical, stretching on long past when I might have cut them myself. There is a lot of throwaway dialogue as characters shoot the wind about things that just don’t matter to the plot. Again, this may be more resonant with older audience members who come from a generation of small-talkers, but it just doesn’t make for compelling cinema, at least for me. So many of the scenes feel inconsequential, and it took a long time for me to understand what this film was even about. Even once I figured it out I had a hard time justifying this film’s existence.
I also found the plot to be fairly devoid of tension. The fact that Julianne Moore plays the lead ended up hurting my enjoyment of this film because I kept thinking how similar she was to her role in Boogie Nights, a far superior film and role. Both feature an older woman, semi-estranged from her family, moonlighting as a more free-spirited person. But here, Gloria doesn’t really have any hardship she’s escaping in her everyday life. She’s successful at her job and gets along with her ex-husband and adult kids. It would have been way more impactful to see her normal life crumbling, or at least more strained than it appears on-screen. The only real tension comes from her strange relationship with Arnold, but I needed more impactful setup to understand what led her to the stage of her life that we begin the film with.
With that being said, I did enjoy the chemistry between leads Moore and Turturro. Their relationship was at times strained and awkward, but the pleasant moments of courtship in between were completely charming. There’s definitely an element of wish fulfillment that I was able to connect with; as seen through Gloria’s perspective, Arnold is an appealing partner…successful, sensitive, well-adjusted. Which makes it that much more devastating when he disappoints her time and again. The ongoing mystery of what the true nature of his family status is provides some interesting tension in their scenes. And depending on how sympathetic you are to his character at the beginning, the climactic moment at his home may be that much more impactful, a brilliant payoff to all the setup of their relationship preceding.
Technically-speaking, the film is fairly well-made as well. Lelio continues his penchant for strong camerawork with solid cinematography and enough visual flair to keep us engaged. While the film is remade in English, it is also updated for America and utilizes the landscape well, with strong LA locales (including the trademark traffic) and a luxurious getaway vacation to Vegas. The acting definitely kept me interested despite my issues with the character work. Julianne Moore had to play a more reserved, introverted character, definitely a departure from her usual extroverted self, but she made it work. The supporting cast also impressed me, from bit parts like Michael Cera and Brad Garrett as her family, to Sean Astin and Holland Taylor as people she meets along the way. That’s the mark of a good cast: keeping things fresh even when other aspects of the film aren’t working as well.
Conclusion
A solid but unexciting remake of Lelio’s previous film. I’m still not sure what warranted an English-language revisitation, but I wasn’t necessarily the target demographic so I’m not the right person to ask that question. It’s a bit light on tension and has some pacing issues, but strong performances from Moore, Turturro and more elevate this to a mostly-enjoyable watch.
VERDICT: C+
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-Austin Daniel
Scriptophile 