‘The Glorias’ review – CNN

Flitting about in time, the film features two youngsters playing the feminist icon in her youth, with Alicia Vikander and Julianne Moore portraying her, respectively, as a young woman — introduced traveling in India — and an older one who has found her voice. Periodically, the different Glorias interact, in a sort of “If I knew then what I know now” kind of way.

“Travel is the best education,” says her father (Timothy Hutton), whose moneymaking schemes generally flop, leading to unsettling days before Gloria begins to carve out her footprint as a writer, dealing with the overt sexism and condescension that the “Mad Men” era entailed.

It’s around then, roughly 40 minutes in, when “The Glorias” finally starts to coalesce, making the time devoted to her early biography feel excessive, especially considering that there’s relatively little about her personal life once she’s an adult.

Adapted from Steinem’s autobiography “My Life on the Road,” the movie deals with her undercover expose working at the Playboy Club (resulting in the memorable 1963 Show magazine piece “A Bunny’s Tale”), as well as fending off lecherous bosses, getting asked to make coffee for male colleagues, and being told that it’s “rare to see a woman writer with a sense of humor” and “You write like a man.”