Writer-director Sebastián Lelio's (A Fantastic Woman) 2013 Chilean film Gloria has been remade beat by beat with American pop songs and popular American actress Julianne Moore. The new and old films are as similar as the title change.
Gloria Bell is a simple comedy drama about a woman's resilience, smartly set over just a few days. The Gloria character is a Californian, middle-aged divorcée cliché, but not when played by Moore. She is one of the few, restrained yet fascinating actresses who can earn your full attention even when her character is just doing laundry while singing to Paul McCartney's silly love song No More Lonely Nights.
John Turturro plays Arnold, a similar cliché who meets Gloria at a club where fiftysomethings meet and shake their groove thing to songs such as Boogie Wonderland. I enjoyed the romance, everything about Julianne Moore's character and I'd recommend it just so you can see Moore sing along to Olivia Newton John's hit A Little More Love. You might sing along as well.
In a nutshell: If you've seen the original, skip it. If not it's a March must see.
Award potential: If this were fall, we'd be talking about Moore as best actress, but it's not over the top enough to keep top of mind for 2020.
The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.
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