ALBERT NOBBS
JANUARY 27, 2012
There is really no perfect place to start with this film as it touches on so many things, beginning with basic survival. Set in 19th-century Ireland, Mr. Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) was considered a bastard being raised in a convent until the untimely death of her mother. The nuns put her on the streets, where at 15 she was raped and beaten by several men. Left to fend for herself, she acquires a suit and sets out to find work. Her transition to a male was at first a necessity to get hired, but as the years go oN, she becomes a proficient waiter dedicated to her work. Mr. Nobbs's attention to detail makes her invaluable to the owners of the hotel where she now works.
Mr Nobbs stashes away all her money in hopes that one day she will be able to buy her own shop. Often she drifts away in dreamland imagining how the shop will look and who the patrons will be. She is expecting to live her life out alone with no thought to anything but her future shop when Hubert Page (Janet McTeer) arrives at the hotel. Page is hired as a painter by the hotel owner, Mrs. Baker (Pauline Collins) and is informed that she will bunker at night with Mr. Nobbs.
Nobbs becomes frantic as she prepares to continue to hide her true gender from her roommate. Once bed time approaches it is clear that she is going to stay fully clothed at night until Page completes her work in the hotel. It does not take long during the very first night that her true gender is revealed. Page has no intention of disclosing Mr. Nobbs's secret and goes back to sleep.
Helen (Mia Wasikowska) is a maid at the hotel who often catches Mr Nobbs's eye but she attempts to keep her distance. She does little to hide the openness of her feminine sexual being. Mr. Nobbs is smitten with Helen, as she is the only person who can cause him to falter on his perfection at work. A repairman is hired to fix the hotel's boiler, and Joe (Aaron Johnson) has been mistakenly identified as the repairman. However, he is just a homeless man out of work and accepts the job of fixing the broken boiler. He spends hours and hours attempting to get the boiler working so the hotel will have heat. His anger at being unable to repair the faulty boiler causes him to smack the boiler with his pipe wrench. The boiler soon begins to sputter just before it starts to work. The owner, Mrs. Baker, is thrilled and decides to keep him on to oversee other repairs in the hotel. Joe finds himself the object of Helen's affection. The two begin a relationship that becomes more about stealing from others. Joe does not think of it as stealing when he sends Helen to flirt to receive gifts from Mr. Nobbs.
Mr. Nobbs, however has found out that Hubert Page is really a woman who lives with a woman, Cathleen (Bronagh Gallagher), a few towns away. After visiting the two, her imagination about the shop begins to change as she inserts Helen into the dreams. She feels Helen will be the perfect woman to live out her life with and begins courting her with long walks and presents. Helen is reluctant to continue deceiving Mr. Nobbs, but is encouraged by Joe to get as much as she can from him.
The cast is phenomenal, breathing life into what could have been an old story retold in a new edition. Close has lived and breathed Albert Nobbs as she has worked tirelessly to get the film made. Stripped down to her bare essentials, she transformed herself, doing what most actresses would never do. Janet McTeer shows a stroke genius by carrying herself with such assurance as Hubert Page. It is the luck of the Irish that Amanda Seyfried and Orlando Bloom pulled out of the project, as there is little possibility that they would have improved the outcome. Mia Wasikowska as Helen was the perfect pairing for both Joe and Mr. Nobbs. Her portrayal easily made adjustments from the lover to the loved without missing a step. Oscars will elude most of the cast as the subject does not allow for tremendous viewership. There is no question that every actor/actress should be nominated for their work in this film.
RUSTY
9/2/11