Gloria (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

”Gloria” Examines Women of a Certain Age

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

A woman of a certain age. The phrase denotes a woman no longer young, but not quite old. It’s a period that can promise more angst than encountered in puberty.

The phrase can be traced back to 1754. A 1979  book titled "Women of a Certain Age: The Midlife Search for Self" pegged it at 35 to 54. The New York Times has defined it as the age of 50 to 55.

In “Gloria” – the Chilean-Spanish film playing at the Tropic Cinema – the titular protagonist is 58, a divorcee with grown children on her own, lonely and looking for love.

Gloria (brilliantly played by Paulina García, a performance that garnered her the Silver Bear Best Actress Award at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival.) immerses herself in a whirlwind of singles’ parties. Eventually, she meets up with a guy named Rodolfo (Sergio Hernández), an ex-naval officer seven years her senior. Attracted to him, Gloria imagines a permanent relationship, but first before that can happen she has to deal with her own view of these so-called Golden Years.

Paulina García got her start in Chilean telenovelas, but has gone on to become recognized as a film actress, theater director, and playwright.

At 54, does she identify with Gloria? “If you’re asking about how I most identify with her,” says García, “I think it’s the passage where she moves from being a supporting role in other people’s lives to having a lead part in her own.”

The pivotal point in the film is “about realizing the moment in time in your life when you take control of it,” says Paulina García.

srhoades@aol.com