Albert Nobbs: A Man and a Woman

Let's begin by saying Albert Nobbs is a sad story, but an interesting one at it. Albert is a waiter in a hotel in 1he 19th century Ireland, both a difficult time and a difficult place to live in. Albert is extremely dedicated to work and also introverted. Before going to bed Albert checks the money received as tips and secretly writes down all that in a small notebook and keeps the money away in a secret compartment in the floor. Everything is quite routinary, and well, in Albert's life until the day Mrs. Baker, the hotel owner, hires a painter to improve the aspect of certain rooms of the hotel. Since there is no place for Huber Page, the painter, to spend the night, Mrs. Baker decides Hubert can sleep with Albert to which Albert panicks because he has a secret: Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) is a woman. That night and due to Albert's incapacity to control his fear to be discovered Huber discovers Albert is a woman. Albert practically begs Huber to keep his secret. huber agrees and on the following days he reveals Albert he is also a woman. It turns out that Huber Page (Janet mc Teer) is also a woman. He adopted a male identity to get a job and he even got married, a dressmaker. This incident inspires Albert who has been saving to create his own business: a tobacco shop and feels he will need a woman's help. He chooses Helen, one of the hotel maids, but it turns out that she is in love with Joe, a young handsome man recently hired by Mrs. Baker and is even expecting a child. Albert promises to take care of her and the baby since Joe wants to go to America and will probably travel alone. Helen refuses. One night, Joe argues with Helen loudly and Albert intervenes to defend Helen but Joe just pushes him against the wall. Albert silentlly goes to bed bleeding from one ear and dies that night presumably due to a head injury. Joe departs to America as it was is purpose all along. Months pass and Huber Page, now a widower since his wife died, returns to Mrs. Baker's hotel who has a new contract for him. It turns out that after Albert's death it was discovered he was a woman. Mrs. Baker entered the room secretly to see what she could find and gets Albert's notebook with his notes on the money which she easily finds. Helen has already given birth to a boy named Albert Joseph. She is afraid to be kicked out and that they take her baby away. Huber implies that he is going to protect her and the baby from that threat.

Again there is much more to this movie than what I mentioned before, such as Albert's secret origin for instance. There are good and bad points. One of the low points is the use of great actors for intrascendent roles such as Jonathan Rhys Meyers as one of the habituals of the hotel or Brendan Gleeson as a doctor. Also the pacing can be extremely slow but as the film progresses it gets better. The recreation of that time in the form of dresses, language, manners, and the atmosphere of Dublin is a high point. The cast of actors is of great quality but really the two actresses that make the acing of this cake are Glenn Close and Janet Mc Teere for their male roles. If I had not known Close was starring probably I would not have noticed Nobbs was a actually a woman and Mc Teere was even better at that. Surely Close should have been awarded the Oscar but she did not and that is for Meryl Streep's outstanding performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Too bad, Glenn Close is by far a much better actress than Sandra Bullock for example.
Three stars out of five for this one.                                                                                                                                                                  


        

city itself.