By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Sebastián Lelio
Cast: Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Michael Cera, Brad Garrett, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Caren Pistorius, Rita Wilson, Chris Mulkey and Sean Astin.
Rating: Very Good.
Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio brings “Gloria Bell”, his second English spoken film and again Lelio is at the top of his game.
Set in Los Angeles, California the movie centers on Gloria Bell (Julianne Moore), a divorced and free spirited woman who enjoys to go to Dance Clubs.
Her life will change when she meets Arnold (John Turturro) a divorced man and both of them feel an immediate attraction for each other. Not only Gloria´s life will change forever, but this will represent an opportunity for her to feel more free and to cherish every single moment of life like it is the last.
“Gloria Bell” is an interesting concept and I love that Sebastián Lelio explored that life of a single woman who enjoys going to night clubs in Los Angeles.
Lelio crafted a very good script with interesting characters that were filled with a lot of internal conflict, specially Gloria Bell.
Julianne Moore´s performance is amazing as usual and she gives life to a character that shows a side that is very lonely but at the same time enjoys we can see that she enjoys life. John Turturro is also really good in this movie and the chemistry between both characters works very good.
I like that Lelio is a filmmaker that does care on getting out the best of all his actors and the result is that they give convincing performances.
One of the issues that I had was the cinematography, I felt that for moments the imagery was over exposed. Maybe this was Lelio´s intention but still I feel that visually could have been a better film.
Another flaw of the film was the Third Act of the film. I felt it was too long and there were some moments that were completely unnecessary. I loved one of the twists that happens during the film but I felt that the length of the movie could have been trimmed and the result would have been a better movie.
If it wouldn´t been for this factors I would give the movie a better rating but overall I think it´s a movie that does work and I really enjoyed it.
Lelio directed another great movie and I hope that from every project he takes, he can learn from it and be a better filmmaker he already is.
With that being said “Gloria Bell” is an enjoyable film and I highly recommend it for Lelio´s directing and the performance of the cast, specially Julianne Moore which is such a delight to see in every film she is in.