Gloria Bell

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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I’ve always found it interesting when a creative artist calls a “re-do.” You know, a do-over like when you flub a shot in marbles.

John Fowles did it, rewriting his novel “The Magus.” Cecile B. DeMille made “The Ten Commandments” twice. And Alfred Hitchcock did “The Man Who Knew Too Much” over again.

Now Chilean director Sebastián Lelio has reimagined his 2013 film “Gloria,” this time calling it “Gloria Bell.”

In the first movie Gloria was played by Paulina Garcia; this time she’s played by Julianne Moore.

The story is pretty much the same, with Lelio reconstructing the original film’s narrative virtually scene by scene. But now in English.

At its core, this remains a movie about a sad, single-again 50ish woman. A drama of middle-age malaise.

Divorced for more than a decade, Gloria doesn’t want to be alone. She starts going out to L.A. dance clubs, where she meets a fellow divorcé named Arnold (John Turturro), and begins an affair with him. The frustrating thing is that Arnold hasn’t been separated for very long. Still attached to his needy ex-wife and daughters, he takes their every phone call, a move that doesn’t go over well with Gloria. Much of the movie is watching Gloria compete for his attention.

Gloria comes to question whether she’s still entitled to the kind of hopes and dreams that younger women enjoy.

“Gloria Bell” has a heckuva cast: Julianne Moore in the title role. John Turturro as Gloria’s boyfriend Arnold. John Cera and Alanna Ubach as her grown children. And they’re surrounded by such impressive actors as Sean Astin, Brad Garrett, Holland Taylor, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Rita Wilson.

Sebastián Lelio’s remake is currently showing at Tropic Cinema.

Rumor has it that Julianne Moore twisted Lelio’s arm to remake the film. Shrewd if she did. This is a juicy role. Variety calls it “one of the great female-led films of the 21st century.”

Like the original, this film ends with our leading lady dancing madly to the Laura Branigan song “Gloria” – an empowerment anthem that shows us she has come to terms with what psychotherapist Lillian B. Rubin called “The Midlife Search for Self.” Or as the French put it, une femme d’un certaine age.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com