The Texas border region, for better or for worse, continues to be a hot political topic. While news stations go on about a border crisis, it’s hard for most Americans to think of what that may look like on a day-to-day basis. La Gloria zooms into this political debate but instead of passing judgment on the issue as a whole, it instead uses it to frame the story of one man’s journey of emotional reconnection. It is most successful in these moments of human connection, even if the plot of La Gloria itself veers into the melodramatic.
The film centers on Carson Tidwell (David Morse), a rough-and-tumble rancher living and working in Texas, somewhere between the Laredo border and San Antonio. The film opens with vast scenes of the Texas landscape, firmly placing Carson and his longhorns in the scrubby brush of rural Texas. He seems like your typical lone wolf, eschewing neighborly greetings and using slurs to describe illegal immigrants crossing his property and cutting his fences. That solitude comes crashing down when he shoots into the night after hearing people outside and then discovers a young woman with a shotgun injury in her leg the next morning. Unable to leave her there, Carson takes Irene (Jaklyn Bejarano) in, doing the bare minimum to keep her alive.
What began as begrudging care eventually turned to real friendship, navigating language barriers and different cultures. Soon, Carson is opening up about what led him to this life of solitude and finding himself invested in Irene’s future. This new friendship is further complicated by Carson’s son, who just happens to be a border patrol agent searching for a missing illegal alien spotted in the area.
La Gloria does best in its quieter moments. Morse skillfully carries the film as Carson, slowly peeling back the layers to reveal the man inside. Bejarano is a good foil as the Salvadoran Irene, keeping the audience guessing as to her next move and true intentions. It would have been great to see Irene get more heft, but it oftentimes feels like she is just there to further Carson’s story, a supporting role rather than a co-star. In addition, the film falters when it leans into melodrama. Something dramatic will happen only for the stakes to rise even more, to a distracting level that can take audiences out of the moment.
Set near the Texas border, La Gloria could feel like a heavy-handed “let’s all get along”-type film about white ranchers and Latin American immigrants learning to like each other. Instead, by focusing more on this specific white rancher and this specific Salvadoran, the film finds success in telling the story of two people who find an unlikely but mutually healing friendship. While it has successful moments, it veers into melodrama and what could be a two-hander often feels like a one-man show. Thankfully, Morse handles that show with ease.
