For a movie called “Gilda,” this needed way more Gilda. The opening focus on Johnny seems interminable – an unlikable, dull character in a hammy, overdone performance.
This makes Rita Hayworth’s arrival and performance all the more exciting as the movie finally becomes something. As great as her performance is though, it is still a performance in this movie .
The pacing and plotting is bizarre, at times incredibly languid only to then barrel through crazy offscreen plot developments with strange exposition.
And then she just forgives him for years of psychological abuse and everyone lives happily ever after, I guess. Gilda, you truly are a mystery.
