Beautiful scenery and music. Good performance from Gena Rowlands. Cool plot. Bad direction to the actor John Adames, whose performance was very bad as a result. Also, a bunch of scenes seemed to be missing that would explain really arbitrary-seeming choices by Gloria. Not bad though.

The chaotic storyline is about as real as you can get. Just like real life, nothing is pat and people don't act in expected ways. Direction and music are as wild as New York's heart. Gena Rowland's and John Adames' dialog is true to their characters, a tough, reluctant rescuer and a wiseass orphan, surviving amid perpetual danger and trauma.

One of my all-time favorite films.

Obviously Rowlands is iconic in nearly every moment she's on screen but its Cassavetes' direction that gives the movie its edge. Most other directors would end up making something more predictable and maudlin.

Yes, there are a few problems with the script and some unbelievable situations but it's well worth watching for the magnificent performance by Gena Rowlands.

Experience a rare view of superlative writing, directing, and acting, in perfect unison, not just in a few scenes, but through the majority of the film. The director John Cassavetes, also wrote it, so there was no conveyance of intent, he owned and delivered it in deliberate, gripping, truth. Gena Rowlands absolutely did the impossible. Stellar in every respect.

The description, the star, the director--all of these motivated me to watch and primed me to enjoy this movie. As soon as the kid joined the proceedings, all anticipation evaporated. Gena Rowlands' performance is praiseworthy, but the boy she is risking her life to save is portrayed by one of the worst, if not the worst, child actors I have ever seen. The plot is full of too many unsupported and repetitious instances of her enemies seemingly knowing where she is at all times, no matter how many random bus, taxi, and subway rides she takes. I was puzzled by the fact that she seemingly lived just down the hall from the boy's family, but twice stopped off at a second apartment that she had the keys to, without any explanation as to what her connection to the place is. I don't need an extended biography, just a single offhanded comment that clarifies what slot it occupies in her world. There are touching moments and genuine moments that appear out of this blur from time to time, but the only thing that sustained me through to the end was wanting to see what kind of end the movie would choose--grim tragedy, hard-won catharsis, avant-garde anti-resolution? When the kid follows her instructions and flees to Pittsburgh after she doesn't return on time from a rendezvous with the mob, he repeats an earlier experience by going to a cemetery and picking a tombstone to mourn his presumed-dead protector, and she appears wearing a disguise to rescue him at last. Fine, they went for a happy ending. But he got off a train alone in a strange city and picked a cemetery based on a brief conversation with a kind random stranger. The movie offers zero narrative connective tissue for how she ever found him. Hire a limo, drive from New York to Pittsburgh, spidey sense tells her he must have gone to a cemetery like they did once before, pick the right one on the first try, get there before he has a chance to wander off somewhere else, drive to the right area of a large facility--ah, there he is! This absurdity, combined with his hatefully terrible acting throughout, was enough for me to regard the entire experience with disappointment and distaste.

Director John Cassavetes and his muse/partner Gena Rowlands make "Gloria" work, even though it is a routine gangster drama.

You can just smell the 80s. One of the best motion pictures ever made.

It starts in an odd way, and the overall script is rather simple, but soon we are all in the movie following Gloria's struggle to keep herself and the child alive. Gena Rowlands is relentless in this movie, and her performance is the movie. The child's behavior is a bit odd for someone who just lost their family and overall erratic behavior at times. Not entirely clear what Cassavetes was hoping for this child, the actor and the role, but at times the child is a bit distracting because of the acting or because what child was asked to do. Along with Rowlands, several supporting actors strengthen the scenes. The end of the movie shows a level of consideration for the audience, which might be somewhat outdated, but very much appreciated! In that it has the charm of a classic.

Obviously Rowlands is iconic in nearly every moment she's on screen but its Cassavetes' direction that gives the movie its edge. Most other directors would end up making something more predictable and maudlin.

It seemed like something I would really like, I just couldn't get into these characters.

A gritty movie about a young Puerto Rican boy who the mob wants dead due to him being a witness. He ends up under the care of a tough-as-nails ex-girlfriend of one of the mobsters. They go on the run, trying to bond along the way. It's a cold, steely crime film that could've been truly great if it didn't pull it's punches at the end...

Great great movie!!! Gena Rowlands should have been nominated for and won best actress oscar and the film should have won best picture!!! The little boy was very good and very believable in the film.

The best movie character ever portrayed: Gena Rowlands as Gloria Swenson!

Amazing! Gena Rowlands is a badass!

Gena Rowlands' conscientious performance as a tough-talking gun-toting nanny is perhaps the only saving grace in noted independent film pioneer John Cassavetes' clumsy attempt at making a more accessible feature.

Hidden gem? Also I thought Buck would be featured much longer, he's third on the bill. What a film.

Gloria Swenson's a gun moll all growed up. The mob ain't got time for her no more, and instead of gettin' her kicks like she did in the good 'ole days, she lives alone with her cat in a crappy joint in the slums of New York. It ain't much, but it's something, and she's gotta live, ya know? Now get lost. Gloria may have a sordid past in her wake, but she is certainly not a floozy with a few wrinkles too many. She is a tough-as-nails presence that has been around the block plenty of times, unafraid of anything except maybe the cold eyes of death. Gloria is also portrayed by Gena Rowlands, and "Gloria" is directed by John Cassavetes, her husband. Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes are national treasures, but when your finest pieces of work are confined to ambitiously outlandish independent films, you're bound to only be remembered by the critics who don't have much fun watching Vin Diesel's newest vehicle. They teamed up seven times, but "Gloria" is the closest thing they ever got to the word "conventional." Despite a slightly over-the-top soundtrack, possibly a quirk added by the mercurial Cassavetes, gone are his usual touches of slapped around camerawork and obvious improvisations. With "Gloria," he's an auteur taking a vacation, and it makes for one of his most entertaining, if not one of his deepest, projects. The movie begins in ruins; Jack Dawn (Buck Henry) has made the mistake of double-crossing the mob. Not only has he been skimming money from the profits of their various crimes, but he has also been acting as an informant for the FBI. He, along with his family, are barricaded in a crammed apartment, attempting to hold off hired guns for as long as possible. Then Gloria, a neighbor, comes knocking on their door. She wants to borrow sugar, but instead gets Jack's son, Phil (John Adames). Then the inevitable happens: Phil is orphaned, and Gloria, reluctantly, is forced to take him in. Problem is, the mob knows about it. After this set-up pulls through, the rest of the film acts as a punchy and darkly funny game of cat-and-mouse between Gloria, her newfound Puerto Rican child friend, and, well, the mob. "Gloria"'s only downfall is that it becomes a little monotonous after a while - you can only handle Phil running away and Gloria having to chase after him for so long - but it's much too lovable to really get on your nerves. For once, Cassavetes backs off and lets Rowlands be the star of the show; in the past, it was as if Cassavetes and Rowlands were headlining together (not a bad thing), looking like the cool boho versions of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. But even Ginger Rogers had to have "Kitty Foyle" all to herself. Everything about Rowlands - her light but steely Wisconsin accent, her big hair, her hastily put-on red lipstick, her cheap high heels - is dynamite. In her other films with Cassavetes (1974's "A Woman Under the Influence," 1977's "Opening Night"), she has had to pour out every emotion she's ever felt, as if she were stripping naked in front of a crowd. But in "Gloria," it's clear that she's having fun. Rowlands carries a gun with imposing authority, like a street tough that surprises you with their scrappiness. Even better is her chemistry with the loud and unintentionally funny Adames, who spits out every line with bracing liberation. Gloria is engaging but intimidating, but Phil doesn't much care, and when she can't turn her usual tricks to get him to behave, the playfulness of the film climbs every mountain and fords every stream. "Gloria" runs a little long at two hours, but it isn't without its charms. Rowlands is a wonderful, wonderful actress, and there isn't a second of the film where we don't ask ourselves what we did to deserve a talent this great in the movie business. I adore Cassavetes with just as much fuss, but this time around, it isn't his show. It's hers, and that's not a bad thing.

I will always love Gena Rowlands because of this movie.