Albert Nobbs

 

 

 

It’s an obvious story line, and you can sorta guess how Albert Nobbs (2011, rated R, 113 minutes) will end.

Glenn Close rather convincingly plays a woman who passes for a man (“Albert Nobbs”) in a posh hotel in late 19th century Ireland where appearances matter. She makes a life.

She meets Janet McTeer who, as “Hubert Page,” treads a similar path and who, like “Albert,” tries to fool herself about her prospects for happiness.

There are caricature secondary characters, an almost incipiently blowsy hotel owner, and an ill-fated two- dimensional love affair.

There is a brief rapturous scene at the seashore where “Albert” and “Hubert” let their woman selves run in the breezes.

The best moments make Albert Nobbs watchable.

Disconnect (I’m avoiding a spoiler alert): the ending is not about “Albert Nobbs.” It’s sweet. It’s Nobbsian. It’s other.

 

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Read Albert Nobbs by George Moore