Movie Review: Albert Nobbs

Albert Nobbs (2011) 

Directed by Rodrigo Garcia 

Written by Glenn Close, John Banville, Gabrielle Prekop

Starring Glenn Close, Mia Wasikowska, Janet McTeer, Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Release Date September 2nd, 2011

Published November 14th, 2011

"Albert Nobbs" suffers from novelty. The film about a woman pretending to be a man in 19th century England cannot escape the novelty of star Glenn Close dressed as a man. Close's soft features and fragile demeanor betray her at every turn even as her Albert is a very sympathetic creation.

Albert Nobbs has lived for many years at the Morrison Inn where he's worked diligently as a butler. Scrimping every shilling Albert has saved up quite a nest egg; possibly enough to buy his own tobaccos shop and possibly even enough to live the life of his choice.

Albert is a woman pretending to be a man in order to find work and acceptance. As a child Albert was often abused and was to be left out on the streets after her foster mother passed away. Albert found a way out from under her abuse and poverty by dressing as a man and taking a job as a butler.

That was many years ago. Now, Albert is a respected; if somewhat odd, middle aged man living quietly at the Morrison in silent longing. Albert's secret is nearly revealed when he/she is forced to share his bed with a day laborer named Hubert (Janet McTeer).

In another of "Albert Nobbs" less than convincing visual portrayals, Janet McTeer plays Hubert and, like Ms. Close, Ms. McTeer's features betray her. Add that to the contrivance of two women pretending to be men stumbling upon each other in this way and "Albert Nobbs" begin to seem silly.

What keeps "Albert Nobbs" from becoming ridiculous is the complete commitment of both Glenn Close and Janet McTeer to their characters. While the movie seems to almost attempt to embarrass them, these tremendous actresses maintain their dignity and are never less than sympathetic.

Unfortunately, "Albert Nobbs" suffers for the novelty of Close and McTeer's less than convincing looking drag act as well as a lack of discernible purpose. For the life of me I cannot understand what "Albert Nobbs" was about.

Often times a director will excuse a lack of purpose by calling a film a 'character study;' "Albert Nobbs" is unquestionably that. However, the cop out of a character study is that it allows the filmmakers to not have to craft a compelling story but merely turn out characters who are strong enough to hold the audience's attention.

The characters of "Albert Nobbs" are unquestionably interesting, including the lovely Mia Wasikowska as the object of Albert's affections, Aaron Johnson ("Kick Ass") as Wasikowska's lover and Brendon Gleeson as a friendly, drunken doctor.

I mentioned Wasikowska as the object of Albert's affections. Here the film is unnecessarily coy about Albert's sexuality. Is Albert a lesbian? Does Albert know what it means to be a lesbian? McTeer's Hubert is married to a woman but her sexuality is vague as well; she was married to an abusive husband before stealing his clothes and becoming a man.

I understand wanting the audience to draw their own conclusions about these issues. I also understand that sexuality wasn't as well defined by sub-culture as it is in America in 2011. That said, the film is so vague and so coy that our ability to draw conclusions is nearly comically derailed. Glenn Close delivers a well-considered performance in "Albert Nobbs" but there are simply too many issues surrounding the performance for me to recommend "Albert Nobbs."

Movie Review: Tideland

Tideland (2006) 

Directed by Terry Gilliam 

Written by Tony Grisoni, Terry Gilliam

Starring Jodelle Ferland, Brendan Fletcher, Janet McTeer, Jennifer Tilly, Jeff Bridges

Release Date October 27th, 2006

Published November 17th, 2006 

Writer-director Terry Gilliam has always directed his fantasies. Be they weird or myopic or paranoid, Gilliam directs entirely from his imagination, practical concerns be damned. His latest dream-scape is a perfect example. As Gilliam is forced to admit, in a bizarre opening behind the scenes prologue, Tideland is his own fantasy of what life would be like if he were a pre-teen girl. Based on a novel Mitch Cullen, Terry Gilliam's take on life as a tween girl is even more disturbing and bizarre than even his most ardent fans may expect.

Jeliza Rose (Jodelle Ferland), the daughter of a pair of serious heroin addicts, watches first her mom (Jennifer Tilly) and then her dad (Jeff Bridges), die of drug overdoses. The heroin prepared for mom and dad by Jeliza herself, causes her to recede into her self created fantasy world where a witch named Dell (Janet McTeer) and her mentally challenged henchman (Brenden Fletcher) become her pseudo family and the doll heads she wears as finger puppets carry on long, imaginative conversations with her.

Terry Gilliam isn't kidding when he claims this is what his life would be like were he a pre-teen girl. Wild, imaginative, perverse visions of love, death, sex and parenthood are all themes that Gilliam has tackled before. However, Tideland takes Gilliam's extreme fantasies to a whole new level of perversion. Perhaps Terry Gilliam has finally tweaked a puritan part of my brain but I find there to be something very wrong about presenting a Terry Gilliam fantasy through the eyes of this little girl. 

This is a fantasy that includes not just the drug overdose deaths of two parents from heroin doses administered by their own daughter but also the subsequent gutting, embalming, and slow decomposition of the father as the child continues chatting away as if dad were just napping. Then there is the creepy pseudo-romance. The pre-teen girl has a childish dalliance with the mentally challenged guy. In scenes that are both creepy and strangely sweet these two people who have no idea what intimacy is engage in the kind of childish exploration that would be cute if the mentally challenged guy weren't in his mid-twenties and quite insane.

There is, at the very least, some exceptional visual artwork in Tideland. Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini does some fine work giving vivid life to each of Terry Gilliam's most twisted ideas. For better or worse, the look of Tideland is as impressive as the story is disturbing and horrifying. And yet, Gilliam doesn't treat the horror as horror, there is a distinct sense of dreamlike fantasy, not light-hearted really, but Gilliam is not leaning into the horror that is very much present in this story and while some find that dichotomy compelling, I found it repellent. 

Every experience Terry Gilliam's pre-teen protagonist has, from watching both parents die, to the creepy mentally challenged 'boyfriend,' to the presence of the witch in her fantasies, are all played to such a low key whimsy that they barely register. You may watch in horror as scenes of degradation and dark humor play out, but you will also likely find your mind wandering as Gilliam underplays the horror of the scene in favor of  playing off a more goofball dispassionate response from this deeply troubled and traumatized young girl.

Terry Gilliam has demonstrated the genius of his myopic, selfish approach to film-making in movies as varied as 12 Monkeys, Brazil, and Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. In Tideland however, he takes that weird personal vision to its navel-gazing nadir. This is a movie made by Terry Gilliam for Terry Gilliam and while I admire any filmmaker who doesn't bow to audience concerns about what the majority of people want to see, that doesn't make a movie like Tideland fun to watch.