Albert is shy, deferential, precise.
An Illusion Review by Joan Ellis
Albert
Nobbs is a curiously uncomfortable experience precisely because it is
beautifully acted by all hands. Director Rodrigo Garcia deposits us directly in
the culture and class system of 19th century Ireland and then shows us in
agonizing detail how the upper class is served by the lower in Edwardian Dublin.
The servants who work in Morrison's Hotel are invisible until one or another
makes a mistake in the placement of a cup or a napkin. When drunken guests trip
noisily over themselves on the way to their rooms they don't notice the servants
in the hall. They simply don't exist.
One of these
is Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) a hotel waiter at Morrison's - a woman who has
assumed the identity of a man. Albert is shy and deferential, precise, and good
at his job. He dares to dream of opening a tobacco shop and toward that day he
saves his salary under the floorboards of his small room. When Marge Baker
(Pauline Collins), the officious hotel manager, hires Hubert Page (Janet McTeer)
to repaint the building, she orders Albert to share his room with Hubert. The
conversation between them leads Albert to think he might look for a wife who
could also be a partner in his tobacco shop. His eye falls on Helen (Mia
Wasikowska), an effervescent fellow employee who responds to the shy Albert with
compassion. The character, as drawn, seems unlikely.
In the
culture of that day, could a terribly shy hotel waiter ever achieve his dream of
having both a wife and his own business? Isn't he doomed forever to a life of
obedience to Mrs. Baker's orders or to failure if he leaves?
Glenn Close
played this role on the stage many years ago and has now realized a long held
dream of bringing it to the screen. She is thoroughly consistent as Albert, not
an easy job. She shows us his reliability as a proper waiter; and when he is
outside the dining room, she shows us his nearly crippling awkwardness. The
scenes between Albert and Hubert as played by Close and Janet McTeer bring forth
the only expressions of feeling that Albert allows himself. He has been offered
a tiny sliver of hope for his future. McTeer is exceptional as the well-adjusted
Hubert. In contrast, Close must be so confined, so rigid as Albert that it's
hard to warm to the character or to join in the hope.
Without hope, we share his despair.
Although the
servants work and live in the beautiful surroundings of Morrison's, no part of
it will never be theirs to enjoy. There is something quite different in life
presented here from the Upstairs/Downstairs cultures we have all enjoyed on
Public Television. That seemed a world of fully realized double cultures with
all comers both entitled and vulnerable to the vagaries of the luxurious life
that surrounds them. They had lives. Hubert has a life. Albert doesn't. Alas.
Copyright (c) Illusion