Roadside has debuted the Albert Nobbs trailer, a film I saw in Toronto (read my review here) and unfortunately came away a little cold though I will say while Glenn Close as the title character is sure to be the focus of the film’s marketing, Janet McTeer as Hubert Page is the one that steals the show.
The film is an adaptation of s 19th-century short story by George Moore, which was then turned into an off-Broadway production of which Close actually won an Obie Award for playing the titular character, a woman passing herself off as a man in order to work and survive in 19th century Ireland. As for the issues I had with it, here’s a snippet from my review:
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 for 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.
Right now I have Close ranked in the fifth slot in my Best Actress Oscar predictions, but it’s a position is holding to with a very thin thread as far as I am concerned. The actress fields are always hot competitions and with close being overshadowed by McTeer (I believe she is a lock for a Supporting nom) in this one it really could hurt her chances overall.
Albert Nobbs hits theaters on January 27, 2012 with an anticipated Oscar run some time in December. Watch the trailer directly below.
