Running Time: 1 hour, 53 minutes
Rating: R
Director: Rodrigo García
Quick Impressions:
After seeing Albert Nobbs, I am more convinced than ever that as I speculated in my Iron Lady review, Meryl Streep and Glenn Close have some kind of bet going about which of them can win an Oscar for playing the lead in a quirkier film.
Albert Nobbs! What to make of Albert Nobbs? The person is odd. I’m not sure what to say about Albert because anything genuinely enlightening, anything worth saying can only be said after watching the entire movie, and I try to avoid spoilers if possible. Still, I’ve got to say something, don’t I? We’ll see what I come up with!
The film is more than odd. It’s definitely unique. And it is entertaining. But it’s ultimately frustrating, equal parts funny and sad, but neither of those in a good way exactly.
The beginning is genuinely amusing, but the middle is painful, and this painful, strained, stressful part continues so long that you’re immensely relieved at the end. At least I was. It’s not a happy ending. But it’s not the worst ending I could imagine, either. The most I can say is, in the end, it was over, and I thought, “Oh thank God!”
Don’t take that the wrong way. I’m not saying that I didn’t like Albert Nobbs. I’m saying that I did like Albert Nobbs, and I couldn’t stand to endure another moment. The movie lasts not quite two hours. It feels about four hours long.
Another strange thing. In the beginning of the movie, you look at Albert and say to yourself, Are these people blind? That is obviously a woman! But as the movie progresses, Albert begins to look more and more and more like a man. I thought it was just me, but my husband, apparently, had the same impression.
I don’t think the make-up changes. I think you just get used to the character because (with the exception of one very notable scene), Albert always behaves like a man. For that reason alone, I think Glenn Close deserves her nomination. It’s a redeeming virtue of the movie, too. There’s a sort of quiet genius in that kind of filmmaking.
The Good:
This movie is a godsend for professors seeking a useful film for discussing gender in a classroom. Anybody who wants to have a complex, theoretical discussion of gender and sexuality will probably appreciate Albert Nobbs, which not only provides multiple examples suggesting the performative nature of gender but also distinguishes between gender and sexual orientation.
The acting is excellent also. Janet McTeer’s performance is particularly strong, in part because she plays one of the strongest characters in the story, Hubert Page, possibly the only principal character who actually knows and likes who he is.
The rest of the characters in Albert Nobbs all seem to some degree confused or deluded. Brendan Gleeson’s Dr. Holloran is charismatic, sympathetic, and essentially the most likable man in the film. Nevertheless, he spends most of the movie unhappy, tormented, secretive, and confused.
Mrs. Baker, as capably played by Pauline Collins (who portrays a different kind of witch in one of my mother’s favorite mysteries) is really a piece of work. She’s so nasty and self-aggrandizing that she seems like the sort of grandiose, self-absorbed narcissist likely to show up in the supporting cast of a novel by Charles Dickens or Jane Austen. Obviously, she gives no thought to her own character flaws. Oblivious to the concept of introspection, she just wants to get a lot of nice stuff, so she can be better than other people. She’s a thoroughly heartless capitalist who imagines herself an aristocrat.
Aaron Johnson’s Joe is the kind of guy we would normally expect to come to no good in the end, except in Joe’s case, we know he’s not going to make us wait until the end. He’s ambitious. He’s in a hurry. He’s going places. He’ll come to no good long before the end, possibly even before the middle. In his earliest scenes, Joe seems vaguely intriguing, but from the moment he starts pursuing Helen, we notice that he is unstable, tormented, dangerously confused, far too impulsive, and somewhat creepy.
Helen, played engagingly by Mia Wasikowska, is a likable enough character sometimes. She’s a young woman who’s never known the finer things in life and dreams of a brighter future full of romance and security. There’s nothing so wrong with that. But then she falls for Joe, and we see that her judgment is somewhat lacking. The longer we see Helen, the more we begin to realize that she’s also hopelessly confused about her own identity, what she needs, and what she wants.
She manages to become involved with two people even more confused than she is—Joe and Albert Nobbs. As played by Glenn Close, Albert is asexual and wounded. Initially, he appears to know exactly who he is. He’s a very good waiter and a thorough professional. But then as the film progresses, we begin to realize that Albert is amazingly naïve and socially confused. He insists that his name is Albert, but he seems awfully happy and liberated when he gets the chance to run around in a dress. He’s very open to suggestion and obviously influenced by Hubert Page. Once Albert gets the idea to marry Helen, he won’t deviate from that course. But the question he asks himself in the mirror—wondering when to tell her he’s actually a woman, before or after the ceremony—reveals a profound naiveté in the character. I have some further thoughts, but I don’t want to spoil the movie.
All of these characters are interesting and make the film highly watchable, until it becomes so suspenseful for poor Albert that you want to look away.
Best Scene:
The final scenes of the movie, when Hubert talks first to Mrs. Baker and then to Helen definitely leave an impression. They’re powerful, intriguing, and disturbing on several levels.
Best Surprise:
There’s an early scene with Hubert Page that definitely drew some surprised reactions from the theater audience. If you know anything about the movie before going, of course, this will not be a true surprise. Probably the most surprising thing was what actually happened to Albert’s money, simply because as you watch, you’re sure something different will happen.
Most Oscar Worthy Moment (Glenn Close):
Probably Close’s best scene happens with Helen on the bench. Here we see exactly what Albert wants, what he doesn’t want, what he hasn’t considered, and what he’s willing to risk. We also see again how susceptible he is to the words and judgment of others.
Most Oscar Worthy Moment (Janet McTeer):
Without a doubt, Janet McTeer gives the best performance of the movie. The scene where Hubert first reveals himself to Albert is particularly memorable. (And makes you wonder, why does someone played by Glenn Close need to wear so tight a foundation garment?) I think McTeer’s strongest work comes at the end, in the final two scenes I’ve already mentioned.
Visually:
The make-up is definitely minimalist, which really made me think. Surely it was easier to pass for the other gender in the nineteenth century, when standards of dress were so rigidly binary. Anyone in a dress would have been assumed to be a woman. If you saw a servant dressed as a man, behaving with decorum like a man, of course, you would assume he was a man.
The Negatives:
The pacing of the story is odd, and the ending, while not quite as predictable as it could have been, is, nevertheless, predictable.
At a certain point watching becomes painful and also vaguely boring (because the story isn’t headed anywhere good).
Albert is such a doomed character. When he visits Hubert and Cathleen in their home and still doesn’t understand their situation, you realize that things will not work out well for him. I realize that at the time the situation would have been more perplexing. (Queen Victoria has said lesbianism doesn’t exist. Method acting hasn’t been invented yet.) Still, that Albert believes he could withhold the fact that he’s a woman until his wedding night shows that he has a serious case of arrested development. (How could you think it would be acceptable not to reveal your sex to the person you’re marrying? The bride-to-be would have to be either extremely understanding or incredibly confused and possibly unhinged herself. I mean, it might work on me, but it doesn’t seem like a good strategy for wooing Helen, who loves to talk about how sexy she finds various men.) A woman who behaves as a man, Albert is in many ways still a child.
Overall:
Albert Nobbs is not for everyone, but it is interesting and full of good performances. I’m amazed Glenn Close ever managed to get it made. Hats off to her for her persistence!