Gloria ’99

• Directed by Sidney Lumet
• January 22, 1999
• Based on the 1980 film Gloria by John Cassavetes

A mobster’s ex-mistress befriends a boy orphaned by a murderous gunman.

Like so many other remakes, Gloria ’99 is less of a remake and more of a reboot. The story follows the original in broad strokes. It fixes some issues but does not greatly improve the entire idea. For some reason rather than portraying the villains as THE mob it makes them more into generic mob/organized criminals. Why?

This gives the character of Gloria (Sharon Stone) a different reason to connect with the boy (Jean-Luke Figueroa) that is renamed Nicky in this. She is the former mistress of criminal Kevin (Jeremy Northam) and took the fall for something he did on the promise of a big payday once she got out. When that does not come and the boy presents himself as an option she takes him and immediately regrets it. Not sure what her plans were beyond taking the boy.

In Gloria Stone makes a very common mistake amongst actors. Sometimes-maybe even most of the time-actors should not do that tough person working class accent thing that is more of a cliché and a comedy bit than it is authentic or even plausible feeling. Brooklyn by way of Boston and a pinch of NYC.

As Gloria, Stone conveys a reluctant attachment to the child. It’s implied that motherly instincts that she never knew she had have kicked in. Accent aside, Stone can be authentically tough and hard in this. She never kicks butt physically but chooses to use her brains to best her and Nicky’s pursuers. The reflexive action might be to shoot the villains but instead Gloria has them in one moment strip down and toss their clothing out a window. It is a demonstration of her character and their intelligence.

Much like the original, Gloria ‘99 takes a little too long to get where it’s going. Unlike the original it does feel like it’s building towards something even if it doing so slowly. There’s a sense of moving towards a conclusion as Gloria uses her street smarts and knowledge of the people involved to come up with a solution to her every deepening problem.

The only other recognizable face in this aside from the guy with the gas problem from Dumb and Dumber (Mike Starr) is George C Scott as mob boss Reuben “Ruby” who was one of several people in this movie Gloria slept with. Scott was a fantastic actor, but the problems come when he’s performing with Stone. She is nowhere near his caliber. Maybe if she had not used that tough street girl accent she might’ve at least been able to step up to the challenge. Scott in his scenes with her not only out classes her, but everybody else he is playing against.

Jean-Luke Figueroa as Nicky is in this a little less than the child actor from the original but his acting is not that good. Either up the age of the actor or go through a lot of casting until you get someone that can deliver for a significant amount of time. He’s good in small doses, but by necessity he has to be in a good chunk of the movie. He becomes whiney in a good moment and stiff the rest of the time.

I have a bit of an issue with the ending. Gloria and Nicky go off into the sunset so to speak after he’s in safety and so is she. Everything was settled in a natural way that worked with the film. Nicky grew a little bit and Gloria grew as a person realizing that her superficial life and dangerous lifestyle was not the best choice for her or for anyone really. Then she goes, gets the boy from the safety, and brings him with her which sounds like another mistake in a wall in life filled with mistakes. A rather selfish and thoughtless move on her part.

Gloria ‘99 is a minor improvement upon the original Gloria. It still goes on a little too long and Stone’s performance with that accent just harms everything. As a movie it’s not a bad choice but it’s certainly not great. Given the presence of the legendary Gena Rowlands in the original so me preferring this over that may be a bit on the heretical side. But if I had a choice between either one I would watch Commando. 

Gloria ‘99 is okay. It fixes some of what did not work too well in the last one but not nearly enough and makes its own share of mistakes.