With the exception of a few incredibly successful movies, 2019 has been kind of a slow year so far. There has been some good quality cinema but not much in the way of needle movers. Those films are often harder to pin down because they exist in a sort of limbo where filmmaking quality is evident but the overall impression of the movie still lands flat. Stuck between a character and a story, Gloria Bell is one of those films.
Quite simply, I haven’t really been feeling this movie…well, at least when it has come to writing about it. It was enjoyable enough to watch but Sebastián Lelio’s recreation of his 2013 Chilean film, Gloria, was tepid and uninspiring. Julianne Moore gave a strong performance but what else is new. She has continually proven herself as one of the highest caliber leading ladies in Hollywood but this particular character didn’t stretch her talent any further than she’s shown in the past, probably much less. Screenwriter Alice Johnson Boher and Lelio were probably banking on Moore’s ample skill to carry it to greater heights but the character here wasn’t very meaty. She’s divorced, single, horny, and just kind of looking for her place in the world as a middle-aged woman. That’s all well and good, certainly meant to resonate with a demographic that’s decidedly not me, but pinning her down with a dead end character arc didn’t do her or the film any favors. While it was a painfully honest interpretation on her end, the story didn’t include much (if any) growth which severely depleted any potential resolution.
At the center of this movie is Moore’s budding romance with John Turturro’s character, Arnold. He’s the more interesting of the two with his borderline neurosis post-divorce and the two of them share strong working chemistry which makes them worth cheering for. Right as things start going well, their lives (mostly Arnold’s) get in the way. Unfortunately, his story is only given light in how it pertains to Gloria and the complexity within his character is stripped away in favor of a punchline. Understandably, the film is ultimately about Gloria and presenting her story as the primary narrative but making Arnold a pendulous caricature paints both of them in an unfavorable light. It would have been more challenging, and perhaps even more boring, for the audience to see these two struggle through it all to arrive at a mutually beneficial end, or at least some sort of common ground understanding; something remotely mature. Opting for the protagonist/antagonist approach made for one worthwhile moment in the end but sold out the most uniquely human part of their relationship.
It would be both difficult and inaccurate to categorize this as a bad movie. There is obvious talent both in front of and behind the camera. The supporting cast includes all the most enjoyable performances from the likes of Michael Cera, Brad Garrett, Rita Wilson, and Jeanne Tripplehorn but they all just kind of serve as window dressing. They did elevate the overall stock of the movie but this was something of a missed opportunity. Cinematographer Natasha Braier made the movie look about as nice as it could, highlighted by bold and colorful low-light shots and good use of natural backlighting, but the cinematography likely goes overlooked with something like this. Stacey Battat put together some really wonderful outfits for Moore, full of life and color despite the internal turmoil of the character. The soundtrack was also fairly strong, with tracks from Olivia Newton-John, Gloria Gaynor and of course Laura Branigan’s “Gloria”, even though the redundancy of watching Moore sing along in the car does get stale.
A24 has done some amazing things for independent cinema over the past few years but things change. While they had several high-profile, successful, films last year, the majority of their projects went unnoticed. After several years of solid growth, there was more freedom to take on projects like Gloria Bell but they have to be very careful that the stories they’d like us to see still have a point, or that financial freedom may not always be around.
Recommendation: If you’re a die-hard fan of Julianne Moore or John Turturro, then you may find this movie to be fairly palatable too. However, if you’re just looking for something off the radar to see then this probably isn’t for you.