Gloria

I have to be honest with you in that foreign films are not one of my favorites films to watch. Could it be that I'm concerned about having to keep up with the subtitles, so I miss a sufficient amount of the acting, or will they appear more confusing because of the subtitles? Not sure, but once I do see a foreign film, it's usually a well made one, even if sometimes I may have a problem with the subject matter. There have been many good ones: "La cage aux folles" '78, "City of God" '02, "Instructions Not Included" '13, etc, and ironically, I've loved all of these, so when "Gloria" was released, the trailer looked great, so I figured, "what the heck".

This is a contemporary story set in Santiago, Chile and centered on Gloria (Paulina Garcia), a free-spirited older woman and the realities of her whirlwind relationship with a former naval officer, Rodolfo (Sergio Hernandez) whom she meets out in the bars.
Gloria, a divorcee of 12 years is more than ready to find someone to have a relationship with, whereas Rodolfo, a divorcee of only 1 year is ready, however he's at a place where he's still tied to his family, he has 2 daughters, but is not committed to letting his family know yet of Gloria which, of course, is perplexing to her. Gloria has a son, Pedro (Diego Fontecilla) and a daughter, Ana (Fabiola Zamora), but has no problem in sharing Rodolfo's existence with them. This is clearly two people which should have probably never met, because their relationship could not be any better than tenuous. Do they really end up being compatible, or is it just a fantasy of both?

Others to round out the cast are Luz Jimenez as Victoria, Gloria's maid, Alejandro Goic as Gabriel as Gloria's ex-husband, Liliana Garcia as Flavia, Gabriel's new wife, Coca Guazzini as Luz, Hugo Moraga as Hugo, Cristian Carvajal as Vecino, Eyal Meyer as Theo, Ana's boyfriend, Tito Bustamante as Joaquin, Antonio Santa Maria as Maria, Alvaro Viguera as Novio de Maria, and Marcela Said as Judgadora.

This was incredibly well paced by director, Sebatian Lelio ("Smog" 2000, La sagrada familia" '05, Christmas" '09, El ano del tigre" '11). The way the cast was able to connect so well in this was an amazing feat. It was written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza. It wasn't badly written--definitely a little slow in the middle, but what really saved this film was the acting, and specifically by Paulina Garcia. She WAS Gloria. She made this film sing. The subtleties of her performance of this aging woman going through all the crap that one of her age must go through to find somebody as a companion was pure genius. This was an interesting character study on both these people as they both stumble around trying to find their own individual footing as they grapple in trying to connect.

If you don't feel like to seeing this at the theater, this would certainly look fine on the smaller screen seeing as this is not made for amazing visuals. But if you do like a good character study, and who doesn't, this has just the right ingredients for analyzing character and being entertained at the same time.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                           Rated: R                            110mins.