Albert Nobbs

Movie Title--  Albert Nobbs

Release Year--  2011

Running Time--  1 Hour and 43 Minutes

Director--  Rodrigo Garcia

Cast--  Glenn Close, Mia Wasikowska, Pauline Collins, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Mark Williams, Phyllida Law, Brendan Gleeson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Janet McTeer, Bronagh Gallagher

As a woman that identifies as a man, Albert Nobbs works as a butler in an upscale Dublin hotel to try to make a better life for himself.

Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) is a woman that lives as a man in order to get a good job so he can survive in 19th century Ireland.  Albert dresses like a man for 30 years and is working in a high class hotel in Dublin where he is known for his work ethic and keeping to himself.  He has saved all his earnings in the hopes to one day have enough to purchase a tobacco shop in order to provide himself with an extra measure of independence and freedom.

Albert feels like his secret is in jeopardy when a handsome young painter named Hubert Page (Janet McTeer) is hired for a job by the hotel owner Mrs.Baker (Pauline Collins) and is told to bunk with Albert.  On his first night there Albert's true identity is revealed to Hubert.  After some persuasion, Hubert reassures Albert that his secret is safe, however the next day Albert is still unsure and makes it a point to visit Hubert often throughout the day.  Upon the last nervous visit, Hubert reveals to Albert that he also is a woman, ensuring that he will keep Albert's secret.  Hubert is only at the hotel a few more days but before he goes, mentions that he is married to a woman named Cathleen (Bronagh Gallagher) who is a dressmaker.

The fact that Hubert is married to a woman intrigues Albert and he begins to wonder how Hubert pulls it off.  One day, after not being able to hold his curiosity in any longer, he goes to visit Hubert at his home.  There Albert meets Cathleen and sees the life she and Hubert have made for each other.  Cathleen leaves Albert and Hubert alone and Albert tells Hubert about his life saying that he was abandoned by his parents and that when he was 14 he was raped by a group of young men and left in a bad way.  After that incident he heard that there was a need in the city for waiters, so pretending to be a boy, he buys a suit and unbelievably to him, gets hired.  Cathleen then interrupts the two of them for dinner.

All the while, a new young man by the name of Joe Mackins (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) gets hired on at the hotel to work on the boiler.  He and Helen Dawes (Mia Wasikowska), a young maid at the hotel, soon hit it off and become lovers.  After visiting Hubert, Albert decides that Helen would make the perfect wife to run the counter for him at his tobacco shop and asks her to step out with him.  Helen tells him no and that she is stepping out with Joe but once she tells Joe, he encourages her to see Albert and use him for what he can give to her.  On their first outing, Helen convinces Albert to buy her two boxes of expensive chocolates.  

Joe is only marginally happy with this and tells her that she needs to get more expensive gifts from Albert.  She is uncomfortable with this idea and after telling Joe so, he tells her that the reasoning for it is to get the two of them to America.  Overcome with the idea of going to America, she turns Albert down when he asks her to marry him and work behind the counter at the shop he is going to buy.

Not long after this, typhoid breaks out in the city and some of the staff gets ill.  This drives the customers away and the hotel comes under some financial troubles.  Albert is one of the staff members that contracts the disease but soon recovers, only to learn of events that have transpired while he was ill. 

So, this film was a little strange but good in it's own way.  This film is not going to be a film for everyone but for anyone interested enough to sit through it, I don't think you will be disappointed.

Glenn close does an excellent job in this film.  She portrays the character, as well as the spirit of the character in such a way that you almost forget she is a woman.  This story of Albert Nobbs is touching and sad and inspirational all rolled together to make a film that is interesting and engaging to the viewer.  

Take a little time to view this film, alone or with a group but Don't Forget the Popcorn!