When a filmmaker revisits his or her own material for a remake, there ought to be a really strong reason for doing so. Sebastian Lelio has remade his acclaimed 2013 Chilean movie Gloria in America as Gloria Bell, a vehicle for Julianne Moore. I confess that I have never seen the Chilean version, so I cannot compare the two. Perhaps the culture differences can account for something, yet I don’t understand the appeal of this particular story.

Sebastian Lelio’s American remake follows divorced Gloria Bell (Julianne Moore) through her rather dreary life as she becomes intimate with Arnold (John Turturro), then disappointed as he cannot disassociate himself from his ex-wife and family. She finally has a cathartic moment with a paint gun and, after some self-doubt, begins to like herself again.

If Gloria Bell is intended to represent the modern American woman, then feminism is taking a step back. Sure, she’s intelligent and pretty and sexually uninhibited, and likes to dance, but she’s as shallow as a kiddie pool and lets people just walk all over her. She’s lonely and drinks too much and needs a cat. Eventually she has an epiphany, but if the movie continued for a few more minutes we might find her in jail for it. Then, it’s back to the same, and more dancing. Good music choices, though.

I often rail that movies do not feature believable characters and situations. This one certainly qualifies on both counts, yet it is a disappointment to me. Gloria Bell has a lot going for her but her life seems empty and completely inconsequential. Does she deserve happiness anyway? Of course. But perhaps not a movie spotlighting her utter ordinariness. ☆ ☆. 11 June 2019.