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Monday, January 30, 2012

MOVIE REVIEW
Albert Nobbs
Finding Love And Passion In A Buttoned-Down Ireland

Glenn Close in the title role and Mia Wasikowska as Helen in Rodrigo García's drama "Albert Nobbs".  Patrick Redmond/Roadside Attractions
  
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Monday, January 30, 2012

Nominated for two Academy Awards, Rodrigo García's "Albert Nobbs" takes place in 19th century Ireland, where a woman disguises herself by dressing as a man to make a living and survive in a sexist world.  The title character is a butler working in an aristocratic mansion, and as superbly played by Glenn Close, a sullen, lonely, aching figure looking for love while trying to hide her true identity.  The film expanded to a nationwide release in the U.S. and Canada last Friday.

Albert is dutiful, reliable and exacting.  A disciplined and trusted servant of many years, he does exactly as asked and told.  When his heart tells him that he's in love with Helen (Mia Wasikowska), a maid working in the same mansion, what is he to do?

"Albert Nobbs" chronicles an insular world where things are shown, suggested and imagined but never quite realized.  Albert has dreams of a business, self-sufficiency and a life of love without worry.  The more Albert is shown the possibility of the life he desires the more unattainable it becomes.  Hubert Page (Janet McTeer) has a secret life but lives it more openly.  A robust figure, Hubert is a bold, tough contrast to Albert's almost apologetic silent type, but Albert's heart is bigger than anyone really knows. 

Mr. García utilizes cinematographer Michael McDonagh, who dresses "Albert Nobbs" in a worn, muted palette.  The film's pace is staid and pedestrian, and its movement and shape arise more from character discovery than a typically A to B to C-plotted story.  At once a multi-dimensional love story and a tragedy, "Albert Nobbs" drags on a little longer than it should, though it showcases the brilliance of Ms. McTeer, a towering presence as Albert, and Ms. Close as Albert.  Both were nominated for Oscars last week. 

Taking the lead of its title character "Albert Nobbs" has its own sensible nobility and maturity, shrewdly avoiding the kind of camp and ridicule that one might expect in films on women as men, although Mr. García's film is much more about the pursuit of love and fulfillment than it is gender roles or disguises.  Albert is a prisoner in a world of his own making, one he's forced to invent because of the crusty, prejudiced and discriminating society he's dwarfed by.  Albert's hopes and ambitions keep him going but those ideals and dreams will face a stern test.

Filmed on location in Ireland and filled with good performances by an array of international thespians, "Albert Nobbs", for all its deliberation and patience as a period piece, has clear ties and relevance to the present as a social commentary on same-sex relationships in a still-fearful and closeted American society that is arguably as conservative as the one imagined by Irish author George Moore. 

Mr. García, who draws women keenly and perceptively in his screenplays ("Mother And Child", "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her") focuses solely on directing here, while Ms. Close, who produced "Albert Nobbs", wrote and performed a song for the film, and wrote its screenplay with John Banville and Gabriella Prekop.  Ms. Close's virtuoso efforts come from sheer will and determination to get "Nobbs" to the big screen.  Thirty years ago Ms. Close played her Obie-award-winning character on the Off-Broadway stage, and it has taken about half that time for "Albert Nobbs" to arrive in movie theaters.  The journey has been long, but the performances at least, are worth the wait.

With: Aaron Johnson, Brendan Gleeson, Phyllida Law, Brenda Fricker, Pauline Collins, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Dolores Mullally, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Judy Donovan, Serena Brazabon, Kenneth Collard, Bonnie McCormack, Rhys Burke, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Emerald Fennell, Bronagh Gallagher, Lauren Kinsella, Angeline Ball, Daniel Costello, John Light, Michael McElhatton, James Greene, Mark Williams.

"Albert Nobbs" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for some sexuality, brief nudity and language.  The film's running time is one hour and 53 minutes.

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