Review of Albert Nobbs (2011) by Peggy B — 01 Feb 2012

Such an odd little film which stirs up the same amount of interest as Albert generates standing at dull attention when any 19th century Irish guests pass him/her in the hotel dining room. Despite the entire plot revolving around mixed and matched gender roles, the film remains weirdly asexual.

Give me a robust, or even subtle, sexual identity break-out scene rather than the two victimized cross-dressers trading in their vests and boots for dresses and bonnets to offer one enigmatic "I am woman" scene stumbling down the beach.

Tragic moments are packed into the film but I simply shrug them off for lack of emotional connection to pitiful Mr. Nobbs and the Dublin Dull Hotel. The only likeable character--the "wife" of the second male imposter--was killed off in a typhoid epidemic.

Albert, alas, survives. Glen Close should have loosened Albert's suffocating corset and let him come out of the closet. I'll stick with delicious and delightful Downton Abbey for my starchy uniform fix.