With the glory of youth fading but her willingness to soldier on unwavering, hers is a life of solitude and isolation; for the eponymous divorcee Gloria (Paulina García, The Wall), absent, uninterested children ensure few connections take her beyond her quiet apartment, or the neighbourhood cat that often proves her only company. Attempts at finding male companions are repeated and repetitive, as she bides time in bars and clubs night after night. Alas, with each new acquaintance she makes in a haze of forthright smiles, expressive eyes and drunken flirting, their fleeting dalliances always come to an end.
Yet, donning a slick of makeup and a form-flattering dress, Gloria perseveres with the determination that drives most people to find emotional and physical solace in another, every day offering a new opportunity for love, for hope, and for the happiness she so steadfastly seeks. After spending an evening with the Rodolfo (Sergio Hernández, Dog Flesh), they make further plans: more dates, meals, and other average couple-type interactions. Alas, as their tentative romance soon proves anything but perfect, the truth to Gloria’s happiness lies within herself, not with other people.
In Sebastián Lelio’s (The Year of the Tiger) subtle drama that proudly bears the name of its protagonist, the character is key; rarely does García’s sympathetic yet striking presence leave the co-writer/director’s frame or viewpoint. Slowly but assuredly, his film with fellow scribe and frequent collaborator Gonzalo Maza (Christmas) teases out the details of her modest existence – from the minutiae of her evening routine, to the cycle of excitement and disappointment that follows each encounter, to the constant moments of uncertainty that linger in her wake. With grace and without glamour, in Gloria Lelio crafts a plain and pensive, but poignant and potent portrait of middle-aged loneliness.
That García won the best actress prize at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival for her unsentimental central portrayal is far from surprising, her accolade deserved in the fragility and tenacity that seethes in her performance. Rarely are characters of Gloria’s ilk afforded prime cinematic position, unless for comedic purposes. Seldom is an actress allowed such a simultaneously complex, compulsive, courageous and quietly charming warts-and-all role, nor one that resonates with such authenticity. All the more infrequently do both elements come together, with García’s efforts an exceptional and atypical example.
Lelio supports his leading lady’s odyssey through the dating scene with honesty and heartbreaking acceptance for the perils and pitfalls of getting older, assembled with the endurance of the star and her viewers in mind. His gaze is uncompromising, his willingness to wait delicate and devastating, and his sense of humour amidst the melancholy much needed, each adding to but never overshadowing the woman at the story’s core. As the feature builds through increasingly troubled times to its candid cathartic crescendo, its ending as ebullient as the preceding material is stark. That joy remains despite all odds cements the film as a celebration of the ordinary, and of the snatched moments that prove extraordinary, leaving audiences rightfully singing Gloria’s name.
Rating: 4 stars
Gloria
Director: Sebastián Lelio
Chile / Spain, 2013, 110 mins
October 10 – 20
Image: Rialto Distribution
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