‘Gloria’ Explores Old Age In A New Way

There have been more than a few movies about older people trying to avoid the lethargic funk of their retirement years,but none of them approach the subject in quite the way that Gloria does. The movie revels in activity and vitality, promising that of course it’s possible for one to keep having fun no matter what age they are. At the same time, it’s under no illusions about the trepidation that comes with the twilight years. In one scene, the title character joyfully rides a zip line. The next, she watches a dancing skeleton puppet with melancholy in her eyes.

Gloria, played by Paulina Garcia, is a 58-year-old divorcée. She spends her days trying to keep as busy as possible with sporty diversions and singles meets, and her nights listening to the rantings of her troubled upstairs neighbor. Her routine is shaken up when she meets Rodolfo (Sergio Hernández), a fellow divorcée with a similar lust for life. The two prove a good pair, and for a while it seems that Gloria might have found a second chance at a meaningful relationship. But she gradually finds Rodolfo unwilling to commit, and that drives a wedge between them.

Garcia’s performance is quietly remarkable. She wears every emotion in the way her face crinkles, and in the way her eyes flicker in constant contemplation. The movie is less driven by plot by it is by constant introspection about the various foibles of the twilight years. Gloria is frustrated by the fact that she’s a younger soul in an old body, and how others play off of this quality.

The movie follows through on its goal to depict Gloria and her romantic / pleasure-seeking escapades as frankly as possible. It’s unafraid of 60-year-old bodies. One sex scene between Gloria and Rodolfo is more intimate and convincing than a good deal of standard hot and heavy movie fare, and that honesty extends to the rest of their interactions, which start out sweet and get increasingly painful as it becomes clear the pair isn’t made to last.

That objective perspective means that the interpretation of the film can be quite subjective (beyond the fact that reactions to movies are always subjective, of course). I’ve read vastly different, often diametrically opposed ideas about Gloria. Is she cloaking a refusal to accept her age in her insistence that it’s just a number? Is she wholly sympathetic in her attempts to get Rodolfo to come closer to her, or is she overly aggressive? It’s hard for me to come down on one side or another, and I can see the logic in every reading of the movie.

Dance sequences bookend Gloria. At the beginning, Gloria orders drinks in the background while others boogie in the foreground. At the end, she is front and center, dancing to Umberto Tozzi’s Gloria (a tad obvious, I’ll admit, but still infectiously joyous). If there’s a change in Gloria’s character in the interim between these two scenes, it’s that she’s simply had the “live life to the fullest” credo reinforced for her. She suffers a lot of heartache, but does that mean she should just stop trying? Hell no.

Grade: B