A Broad, a Gun, and a Kid

I consider myself to be a cineaste, which I think means someone who watches films instead of movies. But there are a lot of holes in my education - for instance, I've never seen anything directed by John Cassavetes. Until Gloria.

I partly wanted to see this because it stars Gena Rowlands. I partly wanted to see it because of the plot, which gets recycled over and over: A tough woman has to protect a child she doesn't want (see Ultraviolet). Here's what I got:

New York, the end of the seventies, by Yankee Stadium. It's gritty, but green. Attractive but menacing. A woman is being followed. In her small apartment, her husband (Buck Henry) tells her they have to take the kids and leave, right away. There is a knock on the door.

It's not a mob hitman, it's their neighbor Gloria (Gena Rowlands). In her whiskey and cigarettes drawl, she asks to borrow some caaawfee. Before you know it, the family is dead, all killed by mob hitmen except for a 6 year old boy, and he and Gloria are on the run.

That's most of the setup except for this little twist: Gloria knows the mobsters that hit the family. They are her friends. She is connected. And when they come for the kid, she knows what to do - she opens fire first, and leaves them dead in a flaming wreck.

So that's the story - Gena Rowlands and a kid on the run from mobsters in New York. The rest is atmosphere and technique. Rowlands is brilliant - pure B-movie broad. She hates kids, never wanted to cross her friends, but won't let anyone get in her way. The kid, John Adames, is quite a little man - he is dressed in a kind of disco shirt and dress pants that come up high under his ribcage, so he looks more like a midget than a 6-year old. So, not always 100% believable as a kid whose family was just killed brutally. But who knows?

I took two things away from watching this:

1. God, it was intense. Brutal!
2. New York is a dangerous place, but very beautiful. The people can be harsh but they give. Gloria is constantly running into cabbies, bartenders and diner owners who help her out. Maybe it only works for good-looking broads of a certain age.