ALBERT NOBBS **

“Albert Nobbs” may be the strangest film you will see all year; it could also be one of the best. It’s about a woman (Glenn Close) who lived all her adult life as a man in late 19th century Dublin. It’s not particularly well made but it’s powerful, moving and ... different. This movie is no “Tootsie” but a sad, at times tragic, at times funny account of a life lived out of kilter in a kind of twilight zone inhabited by neither one sex or another.

Nobbs reasons for his/her strange existence is that she needed to work at a time when it was easier for men to find gainful employment than it was for women. But, you may ask, when she went home in the evenings why didn’t she change into a dress and become the woman she was. In some ways the film asks this question but never really answers it. Instead it leaves it up to us, the audience, to fill in the blanks and in this case that, I feel, is a virtue and not a fault; we struggle to know and to understand Albert Nobbs and in doing so we become emotionally involved with her. This is a film about feeling; that it works is quite an achievement.

But Albert isn’t alone in her deception. She meets Hubert, another woman living her life as a man, (if for somewhat different reasons), and they become firm friends and it is Hubert who helps Albert move forward. But Hubert has a wife, (the excellent Bronagh Gallagher), and it is Hubert who encourages Albert to go down the same road. Are these women lesbians? Perhaps, but then again perhaps not. This isn’t a film about sexuality but about gender and it seems almost natural that even in late 19th century Ireland a woman might marry another and live as husband and wife.


Unfortunately, fine as Close and Janet McTeer (as Hubert) are it is hard for us to accept that they could pass for men. However, in one of the films best scenes, when they finally do put on dresses they look forever like two men in drag. Is this great acting or just wishful thinking on our part? I’m inclined to think it’s closer to great acting. Close is excellent as Albert, greatly helped by some fine make-up but McTeer is magnificent as Hubert. It is said the best actors are those who can sit still, do nothing and simply listen and a good deal of McTeer’s performance is doing just that, watching Close and reacting to what she says and does. You can read so much in McTeer’s face; this is an Oscar-worthy performance. There is also very good work from Pauline Collins, Brendan Gleeson and the aforementioned Bronagh Gallagher. Close co-wrote the script; it’s clearly a labour of love and it shows.