Gloria

There is that feeling you get inside when a movie suddenly starts to push your every button, creating an emotional connection that goes beyond pure reason and mere emotion. It elevates your mood to such a point that you wish you could hug the screen out of sheer joy and recognition. That is what Gloria did to me.

Between Lelio's ingenuity in staging the film, an extremely clever script co-written with his frequent collaborator, Gonzalo Maza, and the pumping disco that interjects its opinions and assessments of each situation, Gloria is one of the most enjoyable movies to come along in a while.

I recently heard someone describe Gloria as a midlife-crisis drama, which stunned me. In the most convenient terms, I guess that’s what it is. But what Lelio and Garcia pull off here is so delicate and sturdy that it defies such easy categorization.

Gloria doesn’t lie about a woman’s dwindling options. It’s rife with disappointment and humiliation. But bleakness does not preclude buoyancy. It still manages to leave you with the urge to dance.

Gloria is a sad, painful romantic story.

The movie lets you make up your own mind about this vivacious, likable woman, who is doing her best not to surrender to her inner loneliness.

Like the disco sounds that accompany the end of Gloria, this film seems a bit superficial.

Very sweet story of an old lady just trying to find love and acceptance within herself. The acting was incredible and I hope it gets many awards in its future!

I'm going to be blunt here: I can't help seeing Gloria as an inconsiderate, egocentric, needy woman with a substance abuse problem. It's an interesting portrait but the literal victory dance at the end makes it obvious that she was meant to be a positive character, which puzzles me. Perhaps I'm too young to understand it. In any case, the acting was clearly the highlight of the film.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I guess I've been spoiled by other movies in this genre -- about the middle-aged woman still looking for love. The American version would be visually enjoyable, with a happy ending as our heroine ends up with Steve Martin or Jack Nicholson. The French version would give us a rich understanding of her issues, because she talks so much about them with an interesting variety of people. I give this movie credit for showing a not-that-attractive woman grappling with midlife prospects that are not too cheery. But there's not enough of Gloria's thinking or of insights about her internal life. She looks into the mirror and I guess we're supposed to know what she's thinking ... but we don't, necessarily, and none of the supporting characters are very helpful either.Gloria favors big, odd glasses and likes to dance; that's about it.

Half the movie features a middle aged woman singing in her car, and the other half is old-people sex. I was hoping the story would be much better. Wish I passed on this one.