Julianne Moore rings true in 'Gloria Bell'

This remake of a Chilean movie celebrates one woman's ability to stand alone.

By day, Gloria Bell works for an insurance company. At night, she likes to go dancing, maybe because crowded, throbbing dance clubs give her sense of being with others -- even though she's still alone. Gloria has two grown children and has been divorced for a dozen years. She's lonely but not enough to accept the company of a hairless cat that insists on finding its way into her apartment.

If all this sounds familiar, it's probably because you saw the 2013 Chilean movie Gloria, which was directed by Sebastian Lelio. Lelio has remade his movie with an American cast, substituting Julianne Moore for Paulina Garcia, the actress who played the title character in the original, which simply was called Gloria.

Lelio gives the title a surname and moves the story to Los Angeles, where Gloria Bell spends her time studying yoga, taking a shot at laugh therapy and trying to keep up the spirits of a work friend (Barbara Sukowa) who fears the pending loss of her job.

After Lelio introduces us to Gloria and gives a glimpse of her alienated life, he brings her together with a guy she meets at a club (John Turturro). Having been divorced for a year, Turturro’s Arnold seems like a great match for Gloria. He's considerate, has a fun job (he owns an amusement park where people play paintball) and makes a pleasing sexual partner.

Turturro gives a convincing performance as a man who wants to move forward but struggles to shed the heavy baggage of his former life, namely two needy adult daughters and an accident-prone ex-wife. Will Arnold wimp out or will he assert himself and develop a real relationship with Gloria?

The rest of the supporting cast doesn't get much attention. Michael Cera plays Gloria's son, a young man mired in a failing marriage, and Caren Pistorius portrays Gloria's daughter, a young woman who seems to have found true love with a big-wave surfer.

Lelio stages a painfully awkward scene when Gloria brings Arnold to a birthday dinner with her two kids, her former husband (Brad Garrett) and his new wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn). Things don't go well.

Look, even those who haven't seen the Chilean version will have guessed by now that the point isn't to provide Gloria with a happily-ever-after with a great partner. The script brings her to a point of self-assertion at which she no longer needs a partner. She’s able to dance on her own -- to Laura Branigan's familiar song, Gloria -- of course.

That makes Moore the movie's main attraction, and she's more than up to the task; she gives Gloria Bell soul as she builds toward the inevitable realization that cracks through the wall of Gloria's conflicts.

Add some comedy, and you've got a movie that dances to a beat you've heard before, but won't mind hearing again.

Love in a time of gender fluidity

Oscar nominee, A Fantastic Woman, takes us to Chile where a transgender woman finds herself in conflict with her dead lover’s family.

A Fantastic Woman tells the story of the war between a transgender woman and the family of her deceased lover, heightening its emotional impact with a magnetic performance from Daniela Vega as Marina, a trans waitress whose creative side emerges when she sings in the cabarets of her hometown, Santiago, Chile.

Nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign language film category, A Fantastic Woman opens as if it’s going to be a traditional rom-com. Marina and Orlando (Francisco Reyes) seem like an ideal couple. They enjoy each other’s company and share a sexual attraction. The two are out for an evening. They’re celebrating Marina's birthday and preparing for a romantic vacation trip.

It’s at that point that director Sebastian Lelio pulls the rug out from under Marina — and us. On the eve of their trip, Orlando dies of an aneurysm.

From that point on, the movie presents Marina with a twofold challenge: She struggles to gain a measure of acceptance from Orlando’s family while fending off constant assaults on her identity as a woman.

Informed by routine bigotry, the police question Marina about whether she may have been complicit in the 57-year-old Orlando’s death. Suspicions also are raised that Marina may have been out to bilk an older man. A detective wants to know if she was paid to have sex with Orlando.

It doesn’t take long for Orlando’s family to make their feelings known. Orlando’s former wife (Aline Kuppenheim) and his adult son (Nicolas Saavedra) aren’t shy about expressing their contempt for Marina. To make matter worse, they bar Marina from attending Orlando’s funeral.

Only Orlando’s older brother (Luis Gnecco) tries to be a little sympathetic to Marina’s position.

The conflicts in A Fantastic Woman are distinctly (if not distinctively) drawn. And there’s little question about where Lelio (Gloria) expects our sympathies to lie.

As for the second matter — how a transgender woman is perceived — the film proves more interesting, involving Marina in a variety of confrontations that strike at the core of her being.

At one point, Orlando’s son tells Maria, “I don’t know what you are.”

She says that she’s the same as him — human.

I suppose that's the challenge that Lelio presents to an audience, to see Marina simply as human -- and perhaps to realize that the real questions that torment Marina's antagonists only can be addressed by the now unavailable Orlando. Did his family really know him at all?

A singer and model by trade, Vega gives a performance that encompasses both Marina's ferocity and vulnerability. She ably advances the movie’s best instincts, those that celebrate a spirited woman whose only aim is to have the legitimacy of her grief recognized and respected.