Review of Albert Nobbs (2011) by Ev T — 27 Jan 2012

I've resisted ALBERT NOBBS until finally breaking down and seeing it, because I'm a guilt-ridden Independent Spirit Award voter who refuses to choose a winner in any particular category until I've seen every nominee. Janet McTeer gets the supporting actress nod here, so off to the screening I dutifully went, despite having an aversion to top hat and corset "white people's problems" films and a somewhat unfounded distaste for Glenn Close, even though we delightfully share the same name. I loved her performance in THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, but normally find her strident, theatrical, and humorless.

So it was a bit of a chore to get me to sit down to watch ALBERT NOBBS, a 30 year passion project for Glenn Close about a woman who poses as a male butler in 19th Century Ireland in order to survive. Suspending one's disbelief is crucial here (as it was in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE and VICTOR/VICTORIA) because Close isn't credible as a man for a single second. That's not to say her performance isn't good, because I actually think she's great here. Muted, almost invisible, and with a palpable, hugely sympathetic fear of being discovered, Close is a case study in arrested development and survival instincts. Much like Chauncy Gardener in BEING THERE, Nobbs is a character who has put on a mask for so long, that she doesn't truly know how to interact in the real world. Think of it as the non-Jewish version of what Barbara Streisand did years ago. I call it GENTL.

Visually, Nobbs disappears into the wallpaper, allowing a strong supporting cast to shine. Beloved for her Oscar-nominated turn in SHIRLEY VALENTINE, Pauline Collins is great as the pretentious, strict yet flirtatious manager of the Morrison Hotel, where many of the guests and workers have their share of secrets. It's not just Nobbs who is hiding something. Virtually everyone else is too. From the new painter, brilliantly played by Janet McTeer, to a quartet of guests, led by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who aren't the straight pair of couples they at first appear. Bronagh Gallagher is wonderful as a person very important to McTeer's character, proving that you can make an indelible performance out of a couple of scenes.

Without giving too much away, I was really surprised by the sadness of this film. A story of missed opportunities, hiding, lost loves, betrayal, and the harsh reality under which women had to live, ALBERT NOBBS, touched me way more than I expected. Despite plot contrivances one could spot a mile (or a meter) away, I was moved. McTeer is particularly vivid as a woman who boldly seizes her moments in life instead of waiting for something that may never come. One of the best scenes in the film is when she and Nobbs change their appearances and run on the beach. Ironically, and a bit hilariously dressed as traditional women, the whiff of freedom they experience is palpable and simultaneously ironic. There's a very smart film here hidden underneath some Masterpiece Theatre-style trappings. I understand why it was Close's burning desire to get it to the screen, not so much for her scenery-chewing role (which it is not), but for the tribute it pays to women in our distant past.