Gloria 2014

In Santiago, Chile, Gloria, a 58-year-old woman newly freed from a decade of divorce, begins to crave companionship and a break from a life she’s grown tired of. She starts visiting singles discos, hoping to rediscover a spark, and there she meets Rodolfo, a man who runs an amusement park on the city’s outskirts. Even though he’s seven years older and recently divorced, Rodolfo shows immediate interest in Gloria and they quickly begin a relationship. Yet his life is tightly bound to his two grown daughters, who depend on him financially and have never held steady jobs themselves. Because of that, Rodolfo never leaves his mobile phone unattended and answers every call no matter where he is. On a date at his park, the pair share a kiss, hinting at a romance that feels both exciting and precarious.

Gloria’s joy is tempered when she invites Rodolfo to a birthday dinner for her son, where her ex-husband Gabriel is also present. The conversation soon turns to personal histories, and Rodolfo struggles to keep pace with questions about his own career and past. He had served as an officer in the Chilean Navy, a detail that doesn’t fit neatly into the evening’s casual mood. After a night of heavy drinking, Gloria grows overly familiar with Gabriel, which makes Rodolfo uncomfortable. He steps away to take a phone call from his daughter and never returns to the table. The next day, a furious Gloria ends the relationship, while Rodolfo later confronts her at her office to defend his actions and push back against her harsh judgment of the party incident.

Despite the strain, Rodolfo eventually persuades Gloria to escape with him to a luxury hotel by the sea in Viña del Mar. In the room, a call from one of his daughters interrupts again, but he refuses to abandon the trip and the couple’s budding romance continues — until they have an intimate moment after Gloria changes her mind about leaving. As the night unfolds, they plan to take a vacation together, and Rodolfo keeps his phone off to avoid interruptions. When Gloria asks to see his phone, she playfully dumps it into a bowl of soup to see if he’ll reach for it. He doesn’t return to the table, and Gloria reads the moment as a betrayal. Believing he’s gone to the restroom, she discovers he isn’t coming back, descends into a mix of hurt and anger, and heads to the bar to drink and piece together the night’s disorienting turn. The sequence becomes a whirlwind of casino games, a disco, and late-night wanders through the city. By morning, Gloria wakes on the beach, hungover, to learn that Rodolfo has checked out with her belongings missing and the hotel room no longer available. She boards a bus back to Santiago with a heavy sense of what has happened.

Back in the city, Rodolfo attempts to contact Gloria repeatedly, but she remains distant. In a moment of unresolved frustration, Gloria retrieves one of Rodolfo’s paintball guns from a trash bin and returns it to her car. She drives to his house, where he’s trying to enter with groceries, and she unleashes green paint on the front of the home before shooting him in the groin in a jarring, impulsive act. His family rushes out in shock as Gloria escapes, leaving behind a scene of chaos that underscores how fragile their relationship has become. She heads to a wedding she had planned to attend, slipping in midway as friends greet her with cautious warmth. When the DJ begins playing her personal theme song, “Gloria” by Umberto Tozzi, she initially resists joining the others on the dance floor, but eventually stands up, letting the music wash over her. Surrounded by friends who encourage her, she steps into the moment with a newfound, defiant sense of self. The film leaves her not defeated, but standing in the glow of the music, ready to redefine her life on her own terms.