Review of Albatross (2013) by Mason B — 19 Aug 2014

Sometimes I watch a film and find myself pleasantly surprised to like it far more than I had expected to. There are also occasions where I end up hating a film far more than I ever imagined. Albatross is such a film.

A dramedy about a lower-class troubled yet brilliant spirit who becomes a maid at a family-owned hotel and changes all their lives. And she "changes their lives" by starting an affair with the father and almost destroying the life of the teenage daughter.

The main character, played b Jessica Brown Findlay, is insufferable and terrible mess of a character. The film clearly admires her, but she's every self-indulgent writing cliche all put into one character.

She's rude, but kind. She's a party-girl, but she's cultured. She's young, but wise beyond her years. She's shallow, but she's a reader of great literature. The film clearly can't pick an identity for her, and yet she's the main focus of the film.

And she's writing a novel, which I never once found plausible. She's a terrible person, and yet the film tells us that we should aspire to be more like her. It's a flaw that could sink any film.

Yet Albatross helps by being also unfunny and kind of mean-spirited. None of the other characters get any adequate development or story arcs. Ultimately the film has no insight or profundity at all. Albatross is a tone-deaf, horrifying example of a film.