Gloria Cumplido (Paulina Garcia, Best Actress winner at The Berlin Film Festival) is a late-50s divorcee, mom, and garndmother who regularly hits a Chilean dance hall to meet meet men of a similar age and bent. She does so with aplomb, and with sufficient savvy to offset her vulnerability. Most of the time.
Her challenge comes in the form of a professed fellow divorcee who, although on the aloof side seems a nice enough chap. While kind and caring (he reads poems to her), he also becomes increasingly deceptive. Gloria’s solitary life is portrayed well enough it’s difficult to turn on her for any poor decision-making. We understand her situation, again thanks largely to Garcia’s performance. What’s more difficult is to equally ignore that the screenplay here, which, while containing some fine moments, is often thin and too whimsical for its own good.
Still, it is hardly common that a film about the amorous adventures of a 50-something is even this sharply observed, and while it’s fair to wonder if Garcia was really better than the rest of the actresses in Berlin, she’s pretty damn good as a Plain Jane with anything but a plain spirit and perseverance.
3 1/2 Over-50 Dating And Sex Escapades (out of 5 stars)