By Steve Crum 

Simply put, Gloria Bell is a character study of a middle aged divorcee and her complicated relationships—one in particular. Of course, there are layers more to the character Gloria than her Plain Jane nerdiness and history of subservience to men. Julianne Moore envelopes those aspects in her remarkable performance as the title character. 

Directed and co-written by Sebastián Lelio, Gloria Bell is a remake of his 2013 Chilean film, Gloria. (I have not seen the original.) Like its predecessor, this new take has been described as drama-comedy-romance. The movie’s comedic moments, particularly during the very satisfying finale, are tempered with irony and bliss.

The film opens in what is essentially an over-50 singles bar wherein Gloria goes to dance on weekends. She loves dancing, and has learned—perhaps from the last 12 years of her post-divorce, lonely existence—to dance by herself. On a crowded and dimly lit dance floor, who would notice or even care? Really, Gloria has a very upbeat, positive attitude about her life. She does not frequent the bar to pick up men. But one night, a guy is attracted to her. 

The guy, Arnold, is played by John Turturro, an actor we as movie fans have not seen enough of over the years. As usual, Turturro is unflinchingly in character, this time as a year ago divorced father of two grown daughters. Gloria has two adult kids herself, a son (Michael Cera) and daughter (Caren Pistorius). Arnold and Gloria chat, and begin a rather spontaneous relationship of dancing, paintballs (Arnold owns and operates a business), and sex. 

By this time in Gloria’s life, she has pretty much accepted being alone. But it is OK being with a guy right now. No strings. No future plans. As the plot develops, we learn that is definitely not Arnold’s mindset. Whereas Gloria is an independent soul, her new boyfriend is anything but. That is putting it, as they say, mildly. 

Witness the time Gloria invites Arnold to meet her two kids, as well as her ex, Dustin, and his new wife. (Brad Garrett plays Dustin.) There are issues, thanks to Arnold. Or a trip to Vegas. Dreadful issues, thanks to Arnold. Without getting specific, Gloria could well have developed into a horror movie due to Arnold’s obsessive behaviors and stalking tendencies. 

But fear not such fears. Gloria has nothing to do with crimes of violence, but everything to do with crimes of the heart. Like Gloria herself, that latter is something we all fear. 

Julianne Moore’s extraordinary performance convinces us that Gloria will not only survive, but conquer. 

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GRADE, On A to F Scale: A-