Mariella Gattini

Gloria Bell (2019) is a meditative film about the life of a middle-class, middle-aged woman, who has everything going for her except for one thing: A love life.

The film is based on Gloria (2013), a Chilean movie also written and directed by Sebastián Lelio. He and his collaborators did two fundamental things very well, they adapted the backdrop to a Californian one, so American audiences could understand firsthand where the protagonist was coming from, and diluted the political backdrop commentary to an American current state of affairs.

The original Gloria, interpreted by the charming Paulina García, is located in a Santiago of Chile still dealing with the consequences of a political past that brought much suffering to the country and later an apparent economic recovery that has never benefited the most vulnerable.

Gloria Bell does not intend anything other than showing how an intelligent woman, well adjusted to her circumstances, can take her life by the horns and push it toward her ultimate ambition—her ability to enjoy it in her own terms. However, we can see through the sequence of scenes how harsh and indifferent the world that surrounds her really is, depicted in backgrounds inundated by steel, glass, and concrete.

Julianne Moore, who is also one of the executive producers of the film, did a magnificent job interpreting Gloria, since she disappears to give way to this extraordinary woman trying in every way to be ordinary, and who despite her circumstances goes on with her life in high spirits and always expressing herself in the most vivid, original, and spontaneous ways. Julianne gives the character a contemporary assessment to what is happening to women in general after divorce and after their kids are out of the house. Who are they? How to have a say in their kids’ lives without being considered meddlers? How to mend the hole in their hearts when their daughters leave the country to pursue their dreams? How to be useful to a son who is a single father already? And how in the world can they have now the love life they are supposed to have in an environment that is dismissing them in every way everyday?

I’m sure Sebastián Lelio didn’t go that far in his analysis, but I have to say that his work is of great value nonetheless.

The film received high praise from critics and audiences are divided in their appreciation for the work done. I believe there is a certain hesitation in some to see the value of the theme because, like in the case of the film The Wife, it’s about a woman (as in not a man) confronted with a new life after an entire life lived.

A society obsessed with youth and good looks wants to definitely look the other way when it comes to the passing of time, especially in women, because one way or another it reminds them of their own proximity to death. As it was said in the film A Quiet Passion set in Emily Dickinson’s times: “In America we considered death our personal failure,” and nobody wants to talk about this particular “failure” even today. For that very same reason they tend to ignore or reject anything that reminds them of their own frailty.

However, the reality is that we are all getting older everyday, which necessarily means that at some point we all are going to die. That realization shouldn’t be taken as a tragedy but as a reminder of our own limitations, which makes us more humble and introspective—two basic elements needed to acquire more substance and to share it before it’s gone.

Julianne Moore has that very clear in her mind. Somebody asked her once why was it that she was always so kind with everybody around. She answered: “Life is short,” and then she added, paraphrasing, that it didn’t make sense to waste time with life’s pettiness. In some other occasion she said something very true: People shouldn’t be paying attention to somebody else’s narrative, they should focus on their own. And she continues her great contribution to society with her hard work and her open mind, which makes her the best actress and the best person to interpret Gloria in Gloria Bell, a woman in pursuit of her own dream, who deals with her everyday life with strength, honesty, passion, sense of humor, and vitality. Gloria went from trying to be what everybody else expected her to be to the realization of her own value, and to the narration of her own life dictated by nobody but herself.

I don’t know if she found peace, the only certain thing is that her story was the perfect excuse for two distinct and diverse cultures to come together and become universal. I don’t know you but I would like to see that everyday anytime.

Coming together and sailing into the sunset is not possible every time, but it’s enough knowing that it is possible, especially when it comes to learn new ways to love.

Does Gloria find love at the end? The answer is yes, she finds one of the most important and most forgotten in most women: Self-love.