ALBERT NOBBS

There is an overwhelming sense of sadness that strikes from the very first moment we catch sight of Albert Nobbs going about his duties with such unsmiling exactitude in the posh Dublin Hotel where he works as a Butler cum Waiter.  It's sometime in the late 19^th Century and Albert has been working in the Hotel since he arrived as a 14 year old 40 years ago. In these depressed economic times Albert has lived with the secret that he is actually a woman in disguise because it is the only way that he/she can get any economic security.  As the story slowly unfolds we see that the pain that he lives with as a result of his subterfuge is a very high price to pay.

One day the Hotel is being repainted by Hector and so Mrs. Baker the owner insists that he bunks in with Albert overnight. It is inevitable that even with his cunning that Hector will spot Albert’s true gender, but as it turns out, he too is also a woman in disguise.  In Hector’s case the reasons are however emotional and sexual, as he has set up home with a wife that he clearly loves.

Hector’s supreme confidence is an eye-opener to Albert who starts to think of some possibilities he would never have ever even dared dreamed off before.  He has been hoarding away every single penny of his tips under his bedroom floorboards so that he can one day leave the Hotel and open a wee Tobacconist Store of his own. Now he feels emboldened to ask Helen, one of the hotel maids, to ‘step out’ with him and even consider marriage.  Helen however wants more than a business proposal but some romance too (that she is already getting with the hot maintenance man). Helen will however prove to be the undoing of him yet.

This was very much Glenn Close’s movie in every sense of the word.  She first played Albert in a stage play back in the 80’s and has been trying to bring it to the screen since then, and she even co-wrote the script. Both she and co-star Janet McTeer deservedly garnered Oscar nominations for their performances, and they also had a most impressive cast of supporting actors, Mia Wasikowska, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Aaron Johnson, Brendon Gleeson, Brenda Fricker & Pauline Collins

This extremely likable movie on a very touching topic is one that engages you from the first scene, and as you get connected to the characters, particularly Albert and Hector, you really will the story to succeed.  And it does, almost.  Despite the passion that Glen Close has invested in playing Albert with great sympathy and credulity, and the even more stunning turn that Janet McTeer does imbuing such depth into Hector, there is still this overriding feeling that this fascinating movie somehow failed to live up to its full potential.  It was still very good, but it had promised to be great.


★★★★★★★★