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Albert Nobbs

Albert Nobbs (2011)

December. 21,2011
|
6.7
|
R
| Drama

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 meets a handsome painter and looks to escape the lie she has been living.

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Chirphymium
2011/12/21

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

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Megamind
2011/12/22

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

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Kaydan Christian
2011/12/23

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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Billy Ollie
2011/12/24

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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Anssi Vartiainen
2011/12/25

Glenn Close plays the titular character Albert Nobbs in this 19th century period drama. Times are tough and women are not encouraged to seek out their own fortunes. Which is why Mr. Nobbs is hiding her true gender in order to be able to work. But things are knocked out of balance when he meets Mr. Paige (Janet McTeer), who's hiding a secret of his own.Albert Nobbs isn't overly complicated in story. Or in ambition, for that matter. Certainly the premise itself can be somewhat controversial, but in modern world it's pretty much accepted that women should have the same opportunities as men. Naturally it wasn't always so, and this film rather nicely explores the lengths some women had to go to in order to earn a living.This central theme is the one thing the film has to give, the rest being mere window dressing. Not to say those things don't have merits of their own, but the film wouldn't stand out on them alone. For example, Nobbs eventually has a love interest, Helen (Mia Wasikoswska), who has a love interest of her own, Joe (Aaron Johnson). The problem with those two is that they're very stereotypical young people in love. It would have been more interesting if Helen, for example, was torn between Albert and Joe.Still, this film has a lot to offer. Could it have been better? Certainly, but it's far from bad as it is.

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l_rawjalaurence
2011/12/26

ALBERT NOBBS has some highly promising elements to it. The story of a waiter (Glenn Close) born out of wedlock, who has been forced to carve out a career masquerading as a male, offers some trenchant comments on gender and sexualities in late Victorian societies, as well as pointing to the prejudices that we still harbor today.In the closeknit, socially stratified world of Morrison's Hotel, Dublin, presided over by the maitresse d'h (Pauline Collins), men fulfill the active roles while women are consigned into the shadows as chamber-maids, cooks and the like. If anyone such as the housemaid Helen (Maria Wasikowska) is unfortunate enough to get pregnant, they run the risk of being cast out into the street as "brazen hussies." The house-painter Hubert (Janet McTeer) reacts to this situation by living as a man with a spouse in tow; at no point is her masquerade discovered in public.Albert tries the same strategy, but has to trust in others' willingness not to tell her employer what has happened. The fact that this renders her life miserable is obvious: when s/he gets the chance to shed her male attire and don a dress for the first time, the experience is almost overwhelming for her, as she runs along the Dublin sands like a child before falling down over her skirts.Rodrigo Garcia's film makes some good points about the ways in which individuals are constrained by social convention, especially among the lower classes. Servants are routinely abused, and fired at will, while the maitresse d'h profits at their expense while putting on a public mask of Christian charity.On the other hand, the narrative runs out of steam somewhat, as the story descends into sentimentality, especially when Albert believes that he has become attracted to Helen and vies for her attentions with wastrel Joe (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The contest, predictably, proves an unequal one; and Albert passes away as solitary in death as in life, alone in his poky room at Morrison's. There is a happy ending of sorts; but we feel that director Garcia has somehow missed the opportunity to continue his criticism of sexualities and attitudes towards them. No one, it seems, is any the wiser for having learned about Albert's suffering.

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literaterose
2011/12/27

There are a number of thoughtful, excellent reviews of Albert Nobbs already, and I confess that I doubt I can add substantially to them. I did want to note that, unlike several other reviewers, I found the spareness of Albert Nobb's story, as embodied remarkably by Glenn Close, to be extremely compelling rather than empty or limited. It stands, literally and significantly, in vivid contrast to the towering (in every sense!) presence of Hubert Page, played so magnificently by Janet McTeer--and that's part of the point.And now having said the above, I did want to comment on one tiny element in an otherwise very well written and thoughtful review here, by chaz-28, in which that reviewer suggested that camera tricks and/or forced perspective must have been used to create the illusion of McTeer's Mr. Page looming over other characters... Ms. McTeer is 6'1" tall, quite tall enough on her own to do all the looming/towering necessary without any cinematic magic! (I have a pretty good sense of her height, having both a son-in-law and ex who are/were around the same height.) It's a little funny, considering the subject matter of the film itself, to realize how hard it is for folks--even those very impressed with the work--to imagine that a woman might be... well, big as a man!In conclusion... I wholeheartedly recommend this film. It's a stellar example of deep character exploration and development, embedded in a sturdy, engrossing story. More than worth the watch.

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bregund
2011/12/28

I remember reading somewhere that Glenn Close has been playing this character on stage for thirty years, and it certainly shows in her performance. Close vanishes so completely into her character that in some scenes, you forget that it's her. It's easy to watch this film simply for the novelty of wondering how a woman could successfully pass herself off as a man, but after the novelty wears off you're exposed to the grayish layers of her marginalized existence, constant fear of being discovered, and what must be unbearable loneliness, all characteristics which Close portrays through her simple facial expressions and even her bodily movements, as she walks around the hotel performing mundane servant's tasks. It's difficult not to feel some sympathy for her simple desire to operate a small tobacco shop and get married to a woman, an idea planted in her head by a towering painter who shares her secret. But her simple desire for domestic bliss is doomed not by her secret, but because she is incapable of demonstrating affection; for Mr. Nobbs, marriage is a philosophical construct, not a conjoining of souls. The end of this film is unbearably sad, made doubly so by a financial injustice that leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Despite Close's brilliant performance, the film feels flat; perhaps it's best viewed as a character study, since it seems bereft of story.

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