Albert Nobbs
Glenn Close, Janet McTeer, Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Johnson
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Albert Nobbs is a film about acting - and works because of the acting. Revolving around a woman's struggle to survive by pretending to be someone she isn't, Rodrigo Garcia's otherwise predictable, superficial movie is salvaged by the performances of its cast - the most eye-catching being Glenn Close as the titular character who has spent most of her life dressed as a man to hold on to her job as a waiter in a hotel in Dublin, in a society where Catholic conservatism holds sway.
Nobbs hopes to open a shop with her savings but her life begins to disintegrate when she runs into Hubert Page (Janet McTeer), a cross-dressing decorator living happily with her wife. Inspired by Page's life, Nobbs begins to fantasise about a similar arrangement with Helen Dawes (Mia Wasikowska), a young chambermaid who is herself dreaming of an American future with the newly arrived and wayward porter Joe Mackins (Aaron Johnson).
A brainchild of Close's - the actress first played Nobbs on stage in 1982 - Albert Nobbs is inevitably a showcase of her talent. With the help of prosthetics and make-up, Close is eerily effective, conveying her character's pent-up frustration and fears beneath her seemingly unyielding veneer. But it also takes her co-stars to make the film complete: McTeer provides a larger-than-life contrast to Nobbs, while Wasikowska and Lennon bring some hubris to a narrative steeped in self-doubt and sadness.
It's what lies beyond the acting that fails Albert Nobbs. While anchored by gender-based oppression, the film makes scant references to what that infers. There's a passing reference to Page's horrid life as a battered wife, and Nobbs spells out her sufferings as a teenager; but the misogyny (or all-out chauvinism, for that matter) is never really shown or properly alluded to. The same goes for Nobbs' (and Page's) affection for women: has acting like men altered their mindsets, for example? We'll never know.
While one can argue the mainly indoor setting reflects Nobbs' imprisonment in her male attire, the near-claustrophobic milieu stifles the film. It's perhaps telling that the most moving moment is when Nobbs and Page go on a rare outing (in all senses of the word) to a largely deserted beach, with the former racing across the sand and seemingly enjoying the liberty of being herself once again.