Albert Nobbs - 2 smiles

The main problem with “Albert Nobbs,” starring Oscar-nominated Glenn Close, is the script (by Close and John Banville), which only skims the surface of Albert Nobbs and never provides a deeper analysis of this pinched, unrealized human being. And you really want to know more about a woman passing herself off as a man in Late Victorian-era Dublin. Nobbs (Close) works at Morrison’s Hotel where he’s known to his fellow workers as a fastidious, polite, impeccably correct gentleman who says little, and during his off-hours, keeps to himself in a drab upstairs room where he keeps his earnings under the floorboards. When the proprietress Mrs. Baker (Pauline Collins) tells Nobbs that he’ll have to share his room (and bed) for a night with Hubert Page (Janet McTeer), a painter doing some work at the hotel, Nobbs gives every excuse as to why this is impossible. But before the night is over, Nobbs’ secret is exposed – he’s actually a she. However, much to Nobbs’ shock, this man who always dresses in bulky jackets and sweaters and is always smoking, suddenly flashes Nobbs with the sight of two pendulous breasts. We discover that Hubert is much more easy-going than the terminally repressed Nobbs and she not only passes for a man but is married to a woman. Needless to say, Nobbs begins to hope that there might be more to her life than what she has.

And this is where the script heads in a wrong direction. Instead of following Nobbs in the expansion of her life and world, of learning how to live within the restraints she has imposed on herself, the story shifts to Helen (the always effective Mia Wasikowska), the prettiest member of the hotel staff who’s involved with Joe (Aaron Johnson), a handsome, but troubled young man set on going to America. Nobbs decides ‘he’ wants to marry Helen, so even though Helen is seeing Joe, and with Joe’s urging, Helen goes out with Nobbs. Helen is supposed to get Nobbs to spend money on her and the implication is that Helen and Joe will rob Nobbs and run off to America. This doesn’t happen, but this Helen/Joe interlude doesn’t seem to fit. And because we never come to understand Nobbs, Nobbs’ character is eclipsed by the Hubert Page character, which has traveled much further down the road to living a full, if still compromised, life. And McTeer goes at her role with real gusto, giving energy to the scenes she’s in that is largely absent elsewhere. 2/2/12