Gloria Bell Movie Review

I never remember how much I love Julianne Moore until I watch a movie she’s in and then I’m like oh my gosh I love her so much. That’s how I felt while watching Gloria Bell. I just really freaking love Julianne Moore. This one is kind of unusual and not at all what I was expecting. It’s the English version of the 2013 movie Gloria. The interesting thing is that Sebastián Lelio directed both movies. Now I haven’t seen Gloria (2013) so I don’t know how Gloria Bell compares but it seems like they’re very similar.

Gloria Bell features Gloria (Julianne Moore), a divorced woman in her fifties who is searching for happiness and love. She has two kids Peter (Michael Cera) and Anne (Caren Pistorius) who are grown and leading their own lives. It was really weird to see Cera as a father. I just always think of him as a stoner kid.

Anyways, Gloria meets Arnold (John Turturro) at a club one night and they begin a romance. I couldn’t help but like Gloria, mainly because I love Moore so much. Gloria is a woman who makes things happen for herself and tries to put herself out there despite the consequences. She’s a little kooky and sort of odd but so is Arnold so it seems like a good fit at first. Obviously problems arise and you just have to see for yourself how their romance fares and how Gloria handles it.

I’m not going to lie to you, this movie won’t be for everyone. Even the audience I saw it with wasn’t sure how to feel. The beginning seems like it could go down the romantic comedy avenue but then you take a sharp left and you’re somewhere else entirely. It’s slightly off putting and there were multiple times throughout the movie when I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be solemn. There are some really great moments, but there are also some really weird moments. Sebastian Lelio didn’t quite nail it, but he provided some good bits and pieces.

My favorite part was the song choices, which were aces. Of course there’s Laura Branigan’s 1982 hit Gloria, which is a personal favorite of mine. A Little More Love by Olivia Newton-John and Alone Again Naturally by Gilbert O’Sullivan also make appearances. You get to see Gloria jamming out in the car to these while she drives to work, which I loved (obviously). Overall this was a weird little film made tolerable for me because of how much I like Julianne Moore. But I’ll bet you ten bucks that you’ll be singing Branigan’s “Gloria” in your head for days after you see this. So there’s that to look forward to if you see Gloria Bell.

Film or Movie: Movie
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You love Julianne Moore (like I do)
2. You like offbeat movies
3. You like honest journeys of self discovery