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Critics Consensus: Albert Nobbs tells a worthy story with an outstanding performance at its core, even if the end result is often somewhat less than the sum of its admirable parts.
Critic Consensus: Albert Nobbs tells a worthy story with an outstanding performance at its core, even if the end result is often somewhat less than the sum of its admirable parts.
All Critics (155) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (87) | Rotten (68) | DVD (2)
It's a film whose unrelaxed body language screams: "Give me prizes!"
The grim, grey-hued result is about as far from contemporary drag chic as it's possible to get - appropriate for the subject matter, perhaps, but hardly the stuff of satisfying cinema.
The film surrounding the performance is not always as strong, but the centre holds, and magnificently so.
Albert is at the heart of it all and we see her through her own prism of vulnerability, resulting in a very human story about the search for love, acceptance and understanding of the self.
A movie that, like its title character, never quite dares to let itself discover what it really wants to be.
What you feel, watching Close, is not that you are watching gender being bent into new, absorbing shapes but that you might as well have stayed home and leafed through a book on Magritte.
The film's theatrical tone is ultimately its one great undoing, and even the most ardent admirer of Close's inescapable talent may be hard-pushed to substantiate this most uncinematic of stage-to-screen adaptations.
I found the film to be a touching and unique look at human sexuality and interaction.
... impeccable photography, idyllic cinematography and first class performances... [Full review in Spanish]
Attentive but with an empty gaze, Albert Nobbs examines everything around him closely, with small and insignificant gestures. [Full review in Spanish]
Everything, even the gender-bending, feels like a prop. For such a ripe story, Albert Nobbs is weirdly un-engaging and lacks any real urgency...
As the pinched, ever-wary, heartbreaking Nobbs, Close gives a tricky, high wire, award-worthy performance yet she commendably resists any temptation to be showy, campy or spectacular in the least.
Albert Nobbs is nothing less than a deeply saddening but intriguing film. Glenn Close once again proves her versatility and emotional graciousness that she attacks each character with. It's an obvious movie that requires little brain power but if it strikes a nerve with You, as it did with me, then you'll appreciate what was achieved.
Super Reviewer
Glenn Close delivers a very solid performance, but this weak drama doesn't seem to know exactly what it wants to say, with an irregular story that wanders without a clear direction, giving in to a lot of expository dialogue and ending in an anticlimactic conclusion.
The raves about Glenn Close's performance are deserved, and this is in many ways an important story, but the film is unfortunately lifeless and the subplot's a real stinker. Almost a great movie, but not.
There are many comparisons that I can make between this film and its predecessor, "Yentl." It does not have the same urgency as the Barbra Streisand classic, because the film doesn't adequately show the problems of being a woman. You can argue that Mia Wasikowska's character contrasts Albert, showing the role that Albert would have had to take in society if not for her cross-dressing, but her fate isn't shown until the very end of the film. In between we just get to know Albert, who seems more predatory and awkward than persecuted. Albert, as a character, is very interesting, but it takes a rather long time for us to find out why she is driven to do what she does, and who she is. In "Yentl" we know the stakes from the very beginning: that she cannot cope with the problems enforced against women, and so she rebels by cross-dressing. Nobbs' identity as a woman is witheld from the start of the film, which was interesting in concept, but it is not something that remains a large surprise for the audience, even if they're unaware of the pretext before viewing. Albert acts strange, hoards her money, talks to no one, and keeps pristine and pleasant in all situations. Instead of feeling that this is her moral code (to stay in character and one that has served her well) she has now identified as a gentleman. This is broken up in several instances, especially when we're introduced to her contemporary, Hubert (McTeer). That was a nice change of pace, and including that Hubert and her wife were very much in love makes the film feel more special in that regard. Still, there's very little that distinguishes this film from pure melodrama.
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