Movies Reviews

Albert Nobbs – Movie Review

By Anne Brodie Jan 26, 2012, 15:41 GMT

Albert Nobbs struggles to survive in late 19th century Ireland, where women aren\'t encouraged to be independent. Posing as a man so she can work as a butler in Dublin\'s most posh hotel, "Albert" (Close) meets a handsome painter and looks to escape the lie she has been living. ...more

Glenn Close makes a breathtaking transformation from ball bustin’ femme fatale/ lawyer amazon to play Albert Nobbs in one of the year’s most poignant, heartbreaking and oddly quiet films.  Close is Nobbs a woman permanently disguised as a man in her pursuit of a livelihood in Victorian Ireland, who has lost all sense of self and her true gender.

Nobbs has lived in constant, crippling panic for thirty years rightly fearing that she will be discovered and lose her job and worse than that, her reputation.  “He” is one of the best servants in the city because of his utter conventionality and reliability and his dependence on the job is total because he is alone in the world otherwise.  

Nobbs fluffs, serves and kowtows to the upper echelon of Irish society with the heartbreakingly subservient James Stevens in The Remains of the Day.   Nobbs is worse off than Stevens; she is crippled by her choices and the secret life she leads.
Nobbs is in love with a young housemaid (Mia Wasikowska) a wily, impoverished brat who sleeps with her male lover while systemically fleecing Nobbs of his money.  Nobbs is of course, unable to defend himself against her; he’s smitten beyond caring and inexperienced in the world outside the doors of the stately mansions where she lives her borrowed life.

Nobbs is unable to read others in a non-professional way; his experience has been waiting tables in a structured, unchanging milieu, reading the need for a glass of sherry.   

Nobbs finds a friend at long last when a workman comes to paint the house.   They develop a close emotional bond; Hubert (Janet McTeer) seems to understand Nobb’s unspoken anxieties.   Hubert reveals that he too is a woman, disguised and living a good life.

The difference between Nobbs and Hubert is that Hubert is happy, confident, in a stable relationship with his wife and has the ability to be a true friend.  He manages to get a couple of sketchy details of Nobbs life including the fact that he no longer remembers his roots.  We are watching a life willingly wasted in fear and servitude.

As depressing as it may sound there are two excellent reasons to see Albert Nobbs - Glenn Close and Janet McTeer.  These are juicy roles, certainly, but their performances are beyond the call of duty.  They are perfection.  Close has dared to be a walking shell of a human being and McTeer has the strength to carry Nobbs out of fear – for a while.

Albert Nobbs has the upstairs downstairs juice of Downton Abbey and shadows of many others films in which repression in stately mansions is a way of life.  It is claustrophobic in the extreme, as we know that every move Nobbs makes is designed to keep her identity a secret.  

Nobbs is made of sadness; her double repression – domestic and sexual – is a heavy load to carry.  The film won’t lift anyone’s spirits.  The film is more than worth it to see Close and McTeer in a behemoth, game-changing battle of the actresses.

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35mm drama
Written by Glenn Close, John Banville, Gabriella Prekop, based on George Moore’s short story
Directed by Rodrigo Garcia
Opens: Jan 27
Runtime: 113 minutes
MPAA: Rated R for some sexuality, brief nudity and language
Country: UK/ Ireland
Language: English