A Remake of Garbage Is Still...Well...Garbage

This confused the hell out of me.   Okay, first off, I went to see "Gloria Bell" based on the reviews.   Plus at my screening, there was going to be a post-film Q and A with the film's director Sebastian Lelio and co-star Brad Garrett.  I didn't give a crap about the director but, heck, I'm a big fan of Brad.   

Weird reasoning, I know.   Well, Brad didn't show.  The director did.  And, most unfortunately, so did I.

The first reel of "Gloria Bell" had promise.  Julianne Moore is this divorced woman with two grown children.  She has a job and is even trying to have a life. She goes out to dance clubs that specialize in disco tunes from the 70s.  She sings along while driving.   I'm amused.

And the whole thing goes off the rails.  There are obvious plot developments like hooking up with newly divorced John Turturro.  There are ridiculous plot points like Gloria's son stuck with a toddler while his wife is off finding herself.  Her daughter is marrying a body surfer from Sweden.

In short order, I stopped caring.  As a movie and a story, the results were lackluster.

And here's what is so confounding.   "Gloria Bell" is shot-for-shot a remake of a movie from Santiago, Chile that was made just six years ago.   Wait.  There's more.  Both the original and the remake come from the same screenwriter and director.

Why, you ask?  Beats me.  Frankly, I think the director is a bit audacious and a whole lot full of himself.  You see, because he copied the original frame-by-frame, the holes and the seedy plot devices existed then and still exist now.  This might be one of the sloppiest editing jobs ever.   

Point in fact:  an annoying upstairs neighbor leaves Gloria a package on her doorstep.  It is so murkily photographed that you don't know it's marijuana until about fifteen minutes later.

Gloria's date is in a restaurant and announces he'll be right back.   He never returns, nor is it explained why.

On a jaunt to Las Vegas, Gloria hooks up with Sean Astin (????!!!!).  Next we see her, she's asleep on a pool beach chair and her purse/phone is gone.  Did Sean take it?  Did he rape her?  Unclear again.

This film is rife with missteps like this.   And, given that it's a copy, garbage then is still garbage now.

As for Brad Garrett, he plays the ex-husband and has one scene that actually does work.  An awkward dinner with the dysfunctional family.  He had a whole lot of practice for this working on "Everybody Loves Raymond."

In the Q and A, the goofy director tried to equate his work as society's response to Donald Trump.   Now we have to blame him for rotten movies, too?

LEN'S RATING:  One star.

Dinner last night:  Meat loaf and potato salad at the NY apartment.