I was given the opportunity to view and review the movie Gloria Bell, directed by Sebastian Lelio. I was not paid for this review, but was given an advance copy of the film. The opinions in this review are mine and mine alone.

This sweet, uncomfortable, quirky, awkward coming of age movie is apparently a remake by the same director. I was not aware of that fact until after I had viewed Gloria Bell. 

This movie, that I am still on the fence about, could have been named “Becoming a Cat Lady.”

Here’s the official synopsis:

Gloria (Julianne Moore) is a free-spirited, middle-aged divorcee who spends her days at a straight-laced office job and her nights on the dance floor, joyfully letting loose at high-end dance clubs around Los Angeles. After meeting Arnold (John Turturro) on a night out, she suddenly finds herself thrust into an unexpected new romance, filled with both the joys of budding love and the complications of mature dating.

From Academy Award-winning director Sebastian Lelio (A Fantastic Woman, Disobedience) comes a sophisticated romantic comedy that shows love can strike at any time, relationships are never simple, and nothing can get you down as long as you keep dancing.

I wouldn’t call her all that free-spirited, but she does let loose just a bit, even if it is painful to watch.

Gloria Bell is a delightful coming of age movie – it’s about a 50 some year old, divorced, woman sandwiched between her children, mother, ex husband, and job – who is trying to figure out where she fits in and what’s left for her.

It hits a little too close to home at times which is why it left me feeling a bit ambiguous after watching it.

Gloria works at an insurance company by day, but at night she hits the dance floor. It is while on the dance floor that she meets Arnold a very newly divorced man who recently had gastric bypass surgery.

Arnold is a mess. Something everyone around her has figured out, but fearing she’ll be alone forever she continues in the relationship long past the time she should have kicked him to curb.

Who hasn’t been there?

The movie is about Gloria coming into her own and enjoying the life that she has, it’s not an easy journey for her and Julianne Moore does an incredible job depicting the doubts, worries, anxiety, sadness and joy we all face as we travel through this messy life.

The movie was uneven at times, and dragged on a bit here and there, but the cast was fantastic – Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Michael Cera, Caren Pistorius, Brad Garrett, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Rita Wilson, Sean Astin & Holland Taylor – the music choices were perfection, and the story was something most of us are familiar with – right down plucking our chin hairs. There was a little more nudity than I thought necessary, but Julianne Moore is in amazing shape so why not show it all off?

This isn’t a movie for everyone, but if you’re wondering how we turn into cat ladies, you’ll want to see this movie.