Ghosting Gloria (Muerto con Gloria) is a comedy-romance-and-a-little-bit-of-horror take on a different kind of love story between Gloria, a 30-year-old bookstore employee, and Dante, a ghost.
Directed by Mauro Sarser and Marcela Matta, who is also the producer, the film features Stefania Tortorella as Gloria, a single employee from Montevideo, Uruguay who works at a local bookstore. She can’t find love and does not get along with the men she meets. Gloria confides to her serial-dating co-worker and friend Sandra (portrayed by Nenan Pelenur) that she has not had an orgasm yet in her life. She is constantly annoyed by her upstairs neighbors who have noisy sex every night and is a little bit jealous of her friend who always manages to find a date and constantly mocks Gloria for her singledom.
When Gloria decides to rent out her apartment and move into a house in the suburbs where a man, Dante (Federico Guerra), just passed away due to a brain aneurysm, little does she know that she will have a phantasmagorical sexual encounter with a ghost and that she would enjoy it. Dante’s spirit still haunts the house and makes amorous moves on Gloria.
After several unusual visits from Dante, Gloria surprisingly discovers that she enjoys the sex acts with her ghostly friend. She welcomes his presence as the best lover for an independent girl like her because, being a ghost, Dante is a good listener, gives her space and doesn’t leave the toilet seat up, among other pluses.
Gloria does not expect to fall in love with a ghost and enjoy his company. Until one day she meets a real guy, Marco Manfrini’s Ángel, with whom she shares a drink, a kiss and a slow dance. Dante, the ghost, becomes jealous and starts ghosting her. He disappears from her life.
Suddenly, Gloria misses Dante and finds herself facing her own fears and the need to choose between the idyll of fantasy or a real relationship.
Sarser, who wrote the script, also acts as Gustavo, or as the employees love to call him, the “Mr. Asshole” boss of Gloria.
Also in the cast are Noelia Campo’s blind, mysterious Ludmila and Cecilia Sánchez’s medium Roberta.
Tortorella, as Gloria, carries the movie with lightness and honesty. She implores her ghost lover to continue his carnal activities as she screams in orgasmic ecstasy and beats the walls and cabinet doors. When Gloria finds love, Tortorella displays a newfound confidence in her sexuality.
Aside from tackling female sexuality, femininity and vulnerability, Ghosting Gloria also makes a commentary on the modern dating scene.
Though in the end one asks, is the ghost simply a figment of Gloria’s imagination?