Gloria Bell Julianne Moore’s finest work since her Best Actress Oscar win

A quiet, unhurried and gently inquisitive drama, Gloria Bell would almost fade away before your very eyes, was it not for yet another intensely vivid performance from the great Julianne Moore.

Gloria Bell

A quiet, unhurried and gently inquisitive drama, Gloria Bell would almost fade away before your very eyes, was it not for yet another intensely vivid performance from the great Julianne Moore.

In what ranks as her finest work since winning a Best Actress Oscar for Still Alice, Moore plays Gloria, a fifty-something divorcee looking to make sense of the rest of her life now that her children no longer need her.

Working days are spent running down the clock at a drab insurance job. Many a night is spent dancing in Los Angeles clubs to the sounds she loved as a younger woman.

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Moore’s performance with will enrapture and enlighten viewers.

A man enters the picture, an ex-Marine named Arnold (John Turturro), and he is at once both needy and not-so-available. Gloria likes what she can see. But will she love what he is yet to reveal?

The answer won’t surprise too many people, especially if they’ve seen the 2014 Chilean arthouse hit Gloria, of which this is quite a faithful remake.

Both movies share the same writer-director, Sebastian Lelio, coming off a richly deserved Best Foreign Film Oscar last year for a Fantastic Woman.

Lelio has not gone and fixed what was clearly not broken. What is of note here is how he allows scenes to begin and end on notes of calm and contemplation that you do not often encounter in American cinema.

Brad Garrett puts the most points on the board in Gloria Bell (after Moore, that is) in spirited fashion.

Music is deployed effectively and evocatively throughout, as is a supporting cast of the highest quality.

While Michael Cera and Caren Pistorius have some fine scenes as Gloria’s drifting and dissatisfied offspring, it is Brad Garrett as their father (and her ex) that puts the most points on the board in spirited fashion.

Above all else, however, what will enrapture and enlighten many viewers of Gloria Bell is Moore’s deft creation: a woman taken for granted for seeing life through a glass half-full, and taking steps towards living life as a glass unbreakable.

GLORIA BELL (M)

Rating: Three and a half stars (3.5 out of 5)

Director: Sebastian Lelio (A Fantastic Woman)

Starring: Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Michael Cera, Caren Pistorius, Brad Garrett.

Why settle for less when there is always Moore?

For all things movies follow Leigh on Twitter: @leighpaatsch