Albert Nobbs Blu-ray Review
It's hard to get Close to Albert Nobbs.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, May 17, 2012
Does Glenn Close secretly hate Meryl Streep? Streep has assumed the mantle of her generation's most celebrated
actress, a title made all the more obvious (as if it weren't already) by Streep eclipsing Close (and three others) in the
Best Actress Oscar sweepstakes this past year. But had Streep not come along, it's at least arguable that
Close would be regularly acclaimed as her generation's most celebrated actress, and in some ways Close's
achievements are even more daunting than Streep's. While Streep has proven herself adept at virtually every type of
role she has essayed, and while she has at least slightly flexed her musical muscles in films like
Mamma Mia!,
Streep actually first made a name for herself in a couple of lesser known Broadway tuners (the Richard Rodgers –
Sheldon
Harnick collaboration
Rex, based on Henry VIII, and Cy Coleman's
Barnum, about the circus magnate),
and,
later in her career, took home one of her three Tony Awards for her work in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicalization of
Sunset Boulevard. When you add those types of achievements on top of Close's wide ranging film and theater
performances, it must be at least a bit frustrating for Close to seemingly disappear inside Streep's rather formidable
shadow. That element of frustration may have been exacerbated this year at the Academy Awards, as Close's
nominated work in
Albert Nobbs was in recognition of a project that has been, well, close to Glenn's heart for
decades. Close first essayed the role of Albert Nobbs in 1982 on stage, and she has long harbored a dream of filming
the project. While
Albert Nobbs is in some ways the very definition of a vanity project, it also can't be denied
that it contains one of Close's most fearless and unusual portrayals, one that easily shines a little light into that
formidable shadow cast by Streep and her work in
The Iron Lady.
Actors cross-dressing and portraying members of the opposite gender are usually in projects that are played strictly for
laughs, especially if the cross-dressing involves men pretending to be women (something somehow more intrinsically
silly
than women pretending to be men). Films from
Charley's Aunt to
Tootsie to
Mrs. Doubtfire
have delighted audiences for generations with the patently weird sight of a swarthy, stubble faced male
"become"
a woman. Rather interestingly, when the opposite tack is taken and a woman portrays a man, it's quite often in
dramatic
films, such as Linda Hunt's Oscar winning turn in
The Year of Living Dangerously. But even in these ostensibly
more "realistic" outings, a gambit featuring an actor portraying the opposite sex often seems like little more than a
stunt.
And in some ways, that's one of the major problems with the well intended
Albert Nobbs, despite the fact that
the
film is built around a central conceit that working class men in the 19th century had an easier time finding employment
than women did, hence the charade that Close's Albert character utilizes.
Albert Nobbs is a rather relentlessly dour film experience, simply by dint of the fact that Albert's story is so
unremittingly sad. Albert is a woman who has chosen a life of subterfuge, but it's more than that, really. Albert in a
very real way seems to be something of a nihilist, a character who doesn't actually want to exist in any meaningful way,
content (if that's even the right word) instead to basically become part of the background, hoping no one will notice him
(her). What that means is that the central character of this film is a repressed, introspective focal point, living a sad,
colorless life, and leaving the film with a gaping hole at its center. Close's performance is a marvel of craft, nuanced and
never showy, but the character itself is so problematic that it almost defies a cinematic treatment.
What life there is in
Albert Nobbs is left therefore to a coterie of boisterous supporting performances. Janet
McTeer (also Oscar nominated for the film) shows up as
another cross-dressing female, playing a character
named Hubert Page, hired to paint the hotel where Albert works as a butler. Hubert's arrival serves as a catalyst—
however momentary—which forces Albert into a more serious reflection on his (her) choices and how and why the role
playing seems so necessary, not only from an economic standpoint. The hotel is run by one of the few joyful characters
in the film, Mrs. Baker (Pauline Collins), a somewhat flamboyant woman who seems completely unaware of the "real"
lives of Albert and Hubert. (Is there some hidden reason that both women pretending to be men have chosen names
ending with "bert"?) Two other characters also play into the drama, and while colorful, they're each tragic in their own
ways. A repairman named Joe (Aaron Johnson) arrives and begins an affair with a young maid named Helen (Mia
Wasikowska), leading to several disastrous repercussions which catapult the film toward its bittersweet conclusion.
The film is a fairly lethargic experience at its core, despite the impressive performances all around. When so much of
the story centers on such an inward facing character, even the putative drama that is ginned up with regard to the
supporting characters can't completely overcome the vacancy that resides at
Albert Nobbs' center. Handsomely
mounted and empathetically directed by Rodrigo Garcia,
Albert Nobbs is best appreciated as a curiosity, a
chance for Close and McTeer to give valiant,
tour de force performances, but a film that never really connects
with the audience and is so fundamentally depressing that any ostensible hope that is hinted at by the film's close
seems buried beneath a desperate masquerade of hopelessness.
Albert Nobbs Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
Though it takes place a generation or so before the events of
Downton Abbey, fans of that British television series
may well find
Albert Nobbs fascinating in terms of its portrayal of class differences, even if none of the characters
quite rises to the Grantham level of the landed gentry. (Keep an eye out for
Downton Abbey actress Maria Doyle
Kennedy in a supporting role as one of the hotel's staff.) The none too subtle quasi-screed like aspect of sexual inequality
is really rather deftly handled here, helped immensely by the towering performances by Close and McTeer. Nevertheless,
the film is awfully distant and strangely uninvolving, as if we're watching a tableau without "real" people involved.
Albert Nobbs never really connects with the audience, but it is still a textbook example of impeccable screen acting
and will most likely be enjoyed by most who appreciate great performances, even if those performances are in lackluster
films. Despite a dearth of supplements, this release features sterling video and audio, and (with the caveats above noted)
comes
Recommended.
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