GLORIA--CHILE/SPANISH FILM WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES--MOVIE REVIEW

'Gloria' is a woman's movie about and for woman. It is not
Hollywood's version of a stunningly gorgeous woman who can't get a man
or an old woman with Alzheimer's. Gloria, played gloriously by Paulina
Garcia, is every woman. After 12 years of divorce, her ex (Alejandro
Goic), remarried to a younger woman, in her late middle age with two
grown children who don't have the time to give her that she wants,
working what looks like a decent job which affords her the service of a
housekeeper Luz (Coca Guazzini), goes to dance bars, where middle aged
people hang out, because she likes to dance.

She talks with a few men leading to nowhere when she meets Rodolpho,
played by Sergio Hernandez, recently divorced with an ex-wife and two
daughters who lean on him for everything. He recognizes her vibrancy,
makes his move and they go to bed embarking on a romance. In the sex
scenes, and with the frontal nudity, we see a couple whose bodies are
not toned, sun-tanned and glowing but the bodies of older people who try
to keep fit but are unable to stop Mother Nature. Rodolpho readily
admits that he has had gastric by-pass surgery and wears a girdle to
keep the loose skin hidden but takes it off to show Gloria all of him.

We meet Gloria's family, as does Rodolpho, her single parent son with a
boy, Pedro, played by Diego Fontecillia, her daughter Ana (Fabiola
Zamora) a yoga instructor who is going to Sweden to marry her boyfriend,
her ex with his wife, at a birthday party for Pedro. Being involved
with her family she doesn't realize that Rodolpho has disappeared.

They eventually get together after visiting his amusement park where
Gloria lights up bungee jumping and learning how to shoot a paint ball
gun, and she learns how to use that paint ball gun for revenge.

Gloria doesn't fair well in the older middle age 'meat market' but she
is never a defeatist and you can see it in her face, particularly in a
glorious version of 'Gloria' from 'Flashdance' when she knows she can be
picky because she doesn't need a man but wants one.

Paulina Garcia is a complete and worthwhile discovery for an American
audience. There is a radience about her that when in one scene it is
discovered she has glaucoma and, just for a moment all the light goes
out of her. She gives a standout performance.

The director, Sebastian Lelio, who co-wrote the screenplay with Gonzalo
Maza gives a picture of Chili in broad strokes showing the people, the
country and the politics. He certainly seems to know women and maybe men
going to see this 'woman's' picture will learn a thing or two.