Movie Review: Albert Nobbs (2011)

"Albert Nobbs" is a film with a lot of heart.  Set in a hotel in Dublin, Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) is a devoted butler with a big secret - he is really a woman.  Albert has been quietly working and saving to buy a shop for years and hasn't longed for more until a chance meeting with a house painter named Hubert Paige (Janet McTeer).  Paige and Albert have to room together and Paige finds out Albert's secret but promises not to tell.  The next day Paige revels his own secret - he too is a woman and he has a wife.  Albert becomes curious about how he too can start a life with someone and what possibilities are there for him outside the hotel.  In particular, Albert wonders if a maid at the hotel, Helen (Mia Wasikowska) could be part of his future but the hotel's repairman might be in the way.

I felt that both Close and McTeer gave strong performances in this film as women posing as men in order to work and support themselves.  It's really interesting that in the 19th century women would find posing as a man as a viable option in order to protect themselves and find work.  The scene where Close and McTeer don dresses and go out as women is almost heartbreaking as the audience sees Albert free himself for a moment.  This film also achieved acclaim for makeup which I thought did a good job of transforming Close and McTeer into believable men for the film.  This film is fascinating to me because of the lengths the main characters had to go through for finanical opportunities and freedom from abusive men by transforming into men themselves and living with this big of a secret.  This film gets an A in my book for great writing and acting as well as the makeup/costuming that helped the women transform.