Reader Request Review: Albert Nobbs (*mild* spoilers) ~ Cinesnatch

I missed Albert Nobbs at the Toronto Film Festival last year. Though, at the time, it didn’t appear that I was missing out, as the reviews were very tepid. The best word always seemed to be on Janet McTeer’s performance, who had a choice supporting role in this gender-bending tale. For almost a whole year, the movie appeared to be an Oscar nomination grab for Glenn Close. Based on George Moore’s Irish novella, the stage version of Albert Nobbs starred Close in 1982 (the same year she made her film debut in The World According to Garp). Close tried for years to get the long gestating film version onto the screen and didn’t finally secure financing until 2010. Nobbs is a biological woman working as a butler in 19^th-century Ireland in an era where typhoid kills and peasants dream of leaving for America. Survival drove him to adopt his identity as a teenager, which ultimately suited him and fit as naturally as a glove. He retains his secret until crossing paths with Hubert Page, who also has something of great import to share with Nobbs that he'll find life-changing.

[Image via IMP Awards]

Hubert is a proud member of the tits club

It’s no big revelation that we learn that Hubert is also a biological woman and the film dispatches with that information fairly swiftly. And there is no identity crisis taking place with Hubert or Albert. These are people born biologically as women, who, while living the gender role of a man, discover who they really are. It’s no longer a survival tactic, only a way of life that feels most true to them. Low voiced, carefully measured, Close’s Nobbs still comes across as almost an open secret, or at the very least, genderless. While the makeup and transformation is outstanding, it doesn’t have a flooring effect on someone who has grown accustomed to Close’s visage. Yet, in women’s clothes, Albert oddly doesn’t look female either.

In the world he works in, everything has its place. Classism runs rampant and your outfit defines your station with very little flexibility in social and economic mobility. The very rich get away with decadence, while the poor follow stricter expectations and struggle to rub two pennies together. But the regimented society Nobbs lives in is always telegraphed. There is never a foreboding threat that he could risk everything by allowing anyone to know what he's hiding. Nobbs indeed is scared, but the environment is so loose and accepting, the pressure of fitting in isn’t felt at all. There is no apparent punishment awaiting the frightened Albert. Close’s Nobbs is meek, old, and reserved. He’s uptight from holding his clothes so close to his chest, while living in the future. He’s saving up to join the marketplace as a business owner of a tobacco shop, which becomes the main thrust of the film.

His hopes are further enlivened by Hubert Page with his long locks swept across his forehead. Loose, relaxed, and confident, McTeer has quite the swagger. And, Bronagh Gallagher is delightfully cast as Hubert’s wife Cathleen. "Nontraditional” (namely, two people of the same biological gender) marriage is pretty topical these days. The film expertly captures that this couple is like any other. Hubert broadens Nobbs’ horizons, who, up until then, never contemplated that he indeed could have the life he wanted for himself. It’s incredible what a human being is capable of when they’re made aware of the possibilities. For a vast majority of people, it just never occurs to them that they can have what they want, so they cut their own selves off from ever even trying to get it. Yet, even with that realization, there is the reality that not all individuals are protected equally under the eyes of the law.

Close was in her mid-30s when she played the role on stage and was in her early-50s when she tried to first get this film going. At 64, Close is old enough to be Mia Wasikowska’s grandmother (it’s even harder to imagine that the more contemporary Amanda Seyfried was originally cast as the object of Albert's desire Helen before dropping out). Yet, for the story’s purposes, as oddly as it looks, it works. Wasikowska is so convincing as a young maid fed up with her hot, but irresponsible boyfriend Joe (the yummy Aaron Johnson), that she's ready to settle with just about anyone as long as they can provide her with some financial security and responsible behavior.

The smoldering Aaron Johnson as Joe

Johnson arrives on the scene as the resident bad boy to fix everyone’s boiler. He took the role after Orlando Bloom thankfully left the project. Johnson is going to be huge. He’s all sex and brooding here, but that’s all the role really calls for and he delivers. Indeed, steam emanates off his torso. Mrs. Baker (the brilliantly flirtatious Pauline Collins) asks Joe, “Do you know about boilers?” Out of sheer luck, his lack of knowledge never betrays him as Mrs. Baker is able to announce to the house later, “He has tamed that boiler of ours.” Indeed, he could tame all of our boilers with those eyes of his.

The saucy Shirley Valentine

Ultimately, I was touched by this film and embrace it at the very least for serving audiences something fresh, rather than recycled. Perhaps it’s obvious why this movie didn’t have more appeal, as Nobbs isn’t someone one wants to pal around with and the plot ultimately isn’t the most inspiring (Nobbs' storyline doesn't parallel Colin Firth’s The King’s Speech, in other words). But, he is a dreamer who aspires to be a tobacconist and own his own business. Strange how Republicans across the country who extoll the virtues of capitalism don’t embrace Nobbs’ entrepreneurial spirit, while complaining about the lack of critical acceptance for the free-marketplace-friendly (supposed) steaming pile-of-turd that was the recent film version of Atlas Shrugged.

What did we talk about?

I was inspired to watch this film and write a review when I noted on my dashboard statistics that someone googled "Cinesnatch Albert Nobbs" a while back. I decided that it was an unofficial request for a review. However, I saw it by chance, and Blogger isn't set up in a way that allows me to consistently keep tabs on such things, as a great deal of search data tragically slips through the cracks. I have one more to knock out before my queue is empty. So, please, by all means, if there is something you want reviewed or discussed, don't be shy!

In the meanwhile, here is some gratuitous hotness (and not-so-hotness) from director Rodrigo Garcia ...