The adaptation of the 19th-century short story by George Moore and subsequent play, Albert Nobbs, is a dull and grey story of a woman pretending to be a man, essentially because that’s the only life she’s known for some thirty years. Working as a butler in a swank Dublin hotel for the last 17 of those years, she’s been pinching pennies and saving her tips, dreaming of the day she can open her own tobacco shop and begin living a life she call her own. Beyond that, a couple of side stories involving supporting characters persist, but there really isn’t much more of this story to tell.
Glenn Close has been working on this project for years. She won an Obie Award for her performance in the Off-Broadway production of the play in the early ’80s, but it would seem what works in the intimacy of a play can’t transfer to the size and scope of a theatrical film. Stodgy and uptight is probably the best description for both the film and Close’s performance of the title character, not that she plays it poorly, but when the film begins to embody such uninteresting characteristics it’s hard to get too involved.
Some sense of life is attempted to be found in a side story involving a waitress named Helen (Mia Wasikowska) and her uneducated and uncivilized boyfriend Joe (Aaron Johnson). However, both are a pair of despicable characters with few redeeming qualities if any. Joe is plotting to get out of Ireland and make for America and the two use Albert’s affection for Helen as a way to bilk money out of “him” to the point you dislike them even more and take pity on Albert. And in this case be sure not to confuse pity for actual emotion.
The only takeaway is a supporting performance by Janet McTeer as Hubert Page, a woman also pretending to be a man, for reasons I won’t spoil here, but the fact McTeer has a character to play rather than a passive and quiet empty shell such as Albert helps out a lot. There’s reason to watch when Hubert is on screen, I found myself finally leaning in with interest and kept hoping she would return every time her moment ended. To be honest, why this film focuses on Albert instead of Hubert is an apt question we may never know the answer to.
There isn’t enough understanding or character building to care about Nobbs and I never got the impression she was all that interesting to begin with. All we see are frightened glances, hidden coins and a general fear of being found out, but Nobbs’ small back-story doesn’t offer enough these cliched character choices to hold much weight for the long run and I’m afraid the Oscar talk surrounding Close may all be for naught.
Working with a script co-written by Close with Man Booker prize-winning author John Banville and Gabriella Prekop, I’m not sure how much of the blame should fall on the writers or the shoulders of director Rodrigo Garcia. Garcia and cinematographer Michael McDonough offer up a rather grey landscape with little color, making me wonder if there was anything they could have done to make things the least bit livelier.
I haven’t read the script, but would suspect this is a story that would work much better in the pages of a novel rather than on the screen, where the thoughts in Nobbs’ head could be heard (and no, this isn’t a request for voice over). With this film we get very little insight into the character. Nobbs needed a sounding board and the few scenes she spends with Hubert help with this, but there needed to be more to ever begin caring about or understanding her. Reserved and quiet people almost always have something more to say, it’s a matter of getting it out of them. In Hubert’s home there is one scene where we see Albert’s shell begin to crack… it’s also the last time this happens.
I’m sad to say Albert Nobbs falls as flat as it does, but it simply doesn’t have much of a heartbeat or reason to exist. I felt zero emotion for the characters as the film neared its conclusion and my only interest leaving the theater was in Hubert. It began to feel as if the film’s only goal was to present us with an image of Close dressed as a man, and in that regard it works, but as for the rest it’s all rather needless and inconsequential.
