Albert Nobbs (2011)

5.5 of 10

Personal Bias Alert:  Often bored by upstairs/downstairs period dramas

“I don’t know what makes people live such miserable lives,” remarks one character in “Albert Nobbs.”  It’s a perfect summation of the story, and was the main thought running through my head when leaving the film.

Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) is a penny-pinching waiter at a 19^th-century hotel who dreams of buying a tobacco shop.  He keeps to himself, for good reason, because he is in fact a woman who has been living as a man for decades.  The reasons for this is layered, but it’s clear that he has no desire to go back to being a woman, nor would he understand how to do so.  When Albert meets the house painter Hubert Page (Janet McTeer) and discovers that he is also a woman, Albert’s dream is reimagined. 

This is clearly the setup for a happy ending (that’s sarcasm), but the film shows its hand halfway through.  This isn’t the kind of world where good things happen to decent people; only the strong-willed and the lucky get any sort of peace.  Most of the characters are stuck working jobs that barely keep them afloat, and their dreams are either too small to matter or too large to be feasible.  Hubert seems to be only one who has found happiness, and even his is tenuous.

Hubert, you see, has a wife, and it’s this fact that shakes up Albert’s life.  He begins dreaming of a wife of his own, and sets his sights on the maid Helen Dawes (Mia Wasikowska).  Helen, however, is courting the repairman Joe Mackins (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and is only going out with Albert to leach money from him.  Albert doesn’t have a chance with Helen, but he sticks his neck out and fights for her anyway.  You get the sense that he hasn’t taken a risk like this in quite some time. 

Close makes Albert easy to root for, but I can’t say I rooted for Albert to get with Helen.  She is a self-absorbed, whiny young lady that is thoroughly unlikable.  In fact, most of the characters are pretty nasty, and even though the cast is filled with solid actors, they don’t succeed in making many of the characters watchable.   By the midway point, I just wanted to see these characters meet their miserable fate so I could get away from them.

Director Rodrigo García has worked more in television than in movies, directing episodes for several HBO series.  He’s competent here, keeping everything moving at a decent pace while drawing what life he can out of the dour settings.  He doesn’t bring anything special, though, and the film could sorely use it.  In the end, there’s nothing redeeming in this tale of unpleasant characters with unpleasant futures.

Other Notes:
Ø  Close and McTeer gave good performances, but they were far too curvy to be convincing men.  Their coats or jackets hid it fine, but as soon as those came off you could tell they were women.
Ø  Rodrigo García directed one of my all-time favorite episodes of television:  “Carnivàle” episode 1.6 “Pick a Number”
Ø  You know you’re a great con artist when you get your mark to buy you chocolate and booze.