La Gloria

La Gloria, 2025, 3 ¾ stars

Borderline

Topical drama eschews politics for truth

Exclusive to MeierMovies, May 5, 2025

Ever been to the United States-Mexico border? I have. I went there in 2013, traveling from San Antonio to Eagle Pass, Texas. After parking my car on the American side, I crossed the international bridge on foot, with trepidation. I was greeted on Mexican soil by a single sentinel, holding aloft an assault rifle. He didn’t ask for I.D. He didn’t make eye contact. He stayed silent. I continued.

The Gran Plaza was devoid of life sans the beggars who approached me for spare change. The town’s main museum was closed, its door and windows shattered. Militia in black masks with machine guns patrolled the plaza in the back of pick-up trucks. And they were the good guys.

But I could never shake the feeling that I just didn’t belong. Speaking little Spanish, I found no one willing to utter a word in English. Or assist me in ordering food. Or give me directions. My only joy came with a delightful discovery of a stereotypically touristy street filled with quaint carts offering handcrafted gifts themed to Dia de los Muertos. I bought a couple of figurines, thankful for something resembling a genuine Mexican cultural moment.

If I had been braver, or dumber, I would have ventured on. But after an hour or two of roaming, I decided to play it safe and again traverse the bridge. It was then I encountered the American authorities, who somehow doubted my claim that I had ventured into another nation simply to buy a souvenir or two. Surely my plans had been more devious and I was involved in a narcotics ring of some sort. So there I was, in that dusty waiting room, held for 30 minutes (or what felt like two hours) while they investigated my claims.

I felt bare, stripped of my passport, car keys and drivers license. But somehow I never felt threatened, confident my story would check out and, if they doubted me, I would be able to defend myself from a position of wealth, advantage and U.S. citizenship.

Finally, the verdict came down: “OK, you can go.” I did.

But immigrants rarely hear those words. Most of them are trapped in a metaphorical, dusty waiting room, or, worse still, perpetually on the run.

Irena is one of the lamentable latter. Pregnant, abandoned by her coyote and recently wounded by gunfire, she has nowhere to turn – except, in a Shakesperean turn, to the man who shot her: a bitter, isolated Texas rancher. Still mourning the death of his wife, fearfully protective of his property, partially estranged from his son (who, ironically, works for the Border Patrol) and prone to calling migrants “wetbacks,” Carson Tidwell is an unlikely one to show compassion to an illegal immigrant. And therein lies the intrigue in writer-director Joseph T. Walker’s new zeitgeisty drama, La Gloria (“the glory,” in English).

Cutting through politics and stereotypes, Walker, with a script co-written with Christopher Young, puts humanity and realism on display in methodical fashion. Carson, played by Oscar-nomination-worthy David Morse (The Green Mile, The Hurt Locker), is never a villain, and Irena, portrayed wonderfully by newcomer Jaklyn Bejarano, is never blameless. They are just people, stuck in an impossible situation, stuck on the borderline.

© 2025 MeierMovies, LLC

For more information on the movie, visit IMDB. Parts of this review were lifted from a travel article I wrote last year for MeierMovies.