Gloria Bell. (15.)
Directed by Sebastián Lelio.
Starring Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Michael Cera, Rita Wilson, Brad Garret and Jeanne Tripplehorn. 102 mins.
Julianne Moore is now of a certain age; that certain age where the best roles available to an actress are playing a superhero's mother, or maybe a superhero's adversary. The lack of decent roles for middle-aged women is an issue much harped on about, but on the occasion that one comes along, it tends to go all in. Gloria Bell is all Gloria Bell, an intense character study of a divorced woman in her fifties, worrying about her pension, being single and the pain of her children drifting away, getting her pleasure from dancing and drinking Martinis.
It starts with the camera descending from the ceiling and moving across a dance floor filled with middle-aged singletons, Gloria Gayner's Never Could Say Goodbye playing, heading towards a woman at the bar with her back to us. And the film kind of hinges at the moment Moore turns around to face the camera and that initial impression; is she going to be believable as a real person, as one of us. And she is, utterly. Throughout her career, she has been able to straddle that gap between Hollywood glamour and character actor. No matter how ridiculous the character, or the situation, she has been disconcertingly real. So when you see her singing along to Olivia Newton-John in her car on the way to work, you believe absolutely that this is a woman clinging on, rather than a star trawling for an Oscar.
The problem perhaps is that the people around her don't. There's not much plot going on and most of it is whether she will find love with divorcee Torturro. The omens aren't good because they hook up a little bit too early in the film, and Torturro doesn't really convince as a real person. He's a fine, screen performer, but when he tries for real he can only give you sore thumb, though a very well played sore thumb. Plus the character as written, a former marine who quotes poetry, runs a paintball park and is drained by his two demanding grown-up daughters, is not an easy one to square.
I haven't read any pre-publicity for this but I'm going to guess it will include quotes from various cast members about how, after seeing Lelio's Oscar winner A Fantastic Woman, they were desperate to work with the Chilean on his first English language feature. They'd be happy to do anything with him, but preferably something like the one with the Trans leading character he did that they liked and he won the Oscar for. And this is very like A Fantastic Woman, but it is much more like his previous film Gloria, of which it is a remake. And it is a very assured, very smooth piece of work. Lelio has a tendency to cut from a scene 2 or 3 seconds before you expect him to, before you get too comfortable in it, and then hold a shot when you expect it to be cut. Moore is, as always, a fantastic woman but the film does rather drift past you.
Directed by Sebastián Lelio.
Starring Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Michael Cera, Rita Wilson, Brad Garret and Jeanne Tripplehorn. 102 mins.
Julianne Moore is now of a certain age; that certain age where the best roles available to an actress are playing a superhero's mother, or maybe a superhero's adversary. The lack of decent roles for middle-aged women is an issue much harped on about, but on the occasion that one comes along, it tends to go all in. Gloria Bell is all Gloria Bell, an intense character study of a divorced woman in her fifties, worrying about her pension, being single and the pain of her children drifting away, getting her pleasure from dancing and drinking Martinis.
It starts with the camera descending from the ceiling and moving across a dance floor filled with middle-aged singletons, Gloria Gayner's Never Could Say Goodbye playing, heading towards a woman at the bar with her back to us. And the film kind of hinges at the moment Moore turns around to face the camera and that initial impression; is she going to be believable as a real person, as one of us. And she is, utterly. Throughout her career, she has been able to straddle that gap between Hollywood glamour and character actor. No matter how ridiculous the character, or the situation, she has been disconcertingly real. So when you see her singing along to Olivia Newton-John in her car on the way to work, you believe absolutely that this is a woman clinging on, rather than a star trawling for an Oscar.
The problem perhaps is that the people around her don't. There's not much plot going on and most of it is whether she will find love with divorcee Torturro. The omens aren't good because they hook up a little bit too early in the film, and Torturro doesn't really convince as a real person. He's a fine, screen performer, but when he tries for real he can only give you sore thumb, though a very well played sore thumb. Plus the character as written, a former marine who quotes poetry, runs a paintball park and is drained by his two demanding grown-up daughters, is not an easy one to square.
I haven't read any pre-publicity for this but I'm going to guess it will include quotes from various cast members about how, after seeing Lelio's Oscar winner A Fantastic Woman, they were desperate to work with the Chilean on his first English language feature. They'd be happy to do anything with him, but preferably something like the one with the Trans leading character he did that they liked and he won the Oscar for. And this is very like A Fantastic Woman, but it is much more like his previous film Gloria, of which it is a remake. And it is a very assured, very smooth piece of work. Lelio has a tendency to cut from a scene 2 or 3 seconds before you expect him to, before you get too comfortable in it, and then hold a shot when you expect it to be cut. Moore is, as always, a fantastic woman but the film does rather drift past you.
