I don't know how believable all this is, but it mostly works. A good little story for a genre movie -- a damned soul trying to do one right thing in her life, finally -- and Cassavetes cares enough about making the gal and the kid believably human that I enjoyed seeing this from start to finish

Cassavetes shows he can construct a conventional thriller, delivering the necessary suspense and thrills. But this thriller has something others do not have: a fine performance by Gena Rowland as a streetwise broad with a heart of gold. Sounds like a cliche, but it isn't. Not the way Rowlands does it.

It's signature Cassavetes material but the acting is so execrable in this that it ruins the film. The first 15 minutes are textbook examples of poor acting with an equally terrible Buck Henry with John Adames. Even the usually good Gena Rowlands come off as rather flat in some scenes. It's unfortunate because the story had potential but the flaws weigh it down. There are some rather great scenic 80's NY locations though but that's about it.

Gloria is almost completely devoid of the vital spark that permeated Cassavetes's work in the previous two decades. It feels flat and almost lifeless by comparison. That said, it's still a decent enough effort carried by an awesome performance by Gena Rowlands.

Even knowing this was nothing more than a cash grab from Cassavetes, I was still expecting something more. The script is terribly conventional, even cliche. The report between Rowlands and the kid is stilted and awkward. The music is sometimes inappropriate in tone and always overused. An all-around sloppily composed and insignificant film.

I kinda like that weird ugly wooden kid! Plus there's also a scene between Gena Rowlands and her gangster kingpin ex-lover which is classic Cassavetes.

Cassavetes's move into the suspense genre is disappointing, but not embarrassing. The writing is a lot weaker compared to his great movies of yore -- the kid's text in particular is consistently ridiculous. He's not the best child actor I've seen, either. The music's good but there's too much of it. The story is mediocre and repetitive. Still, Gloria has its charm, it's pretty captivating and it works as sort of a subversive take on an essentially Hollywood premise.

# 833

Gena Rowlands is good, but the film suffers heavily from Precocious Child Syndrome. There's not a whole lot to this movie... it's mostly the same scenes (running from the mob, confrontation with the mob, escape from mob) repeated over and over again. But, except for the kid, it's not bad.