Gloria

(Columbia TriStar)

In John Cassavetes's 1980 original, Gena Rowlands eats nails as a former moll trying to save a little Puerto Rican boy wanted by the mob. Sidney Lumet's tedious remake sheds more than just Rowlands's practical trenchcoat. Poured into plunging black Versace and doing her best Fran Drescher, Sharon Stone softens Rowlands's portrait of repressed maternity into a kinder, gentler Gloria. In the end, Lumet's film goes down as another film in which Stone's material doesn't fit nearly as neatly as her goes-down dress.