Lovely sets and costumes and yes, Glenn Close is very good at appearing to be nearly lifeless, although to me it's more of an annoyance than a performance. And yes, the abuses and humiliations visited upon Victorian servants are made clear ('Downton Abbey'is heaven by comparison). But face it: this is one of those movies whose scriptwriters want to teach us about suffering and ennoble us by causing us to care. One way you can tell is by anachronistic scriptwriting, as when Nobbs's painter friend, who turns out to be a lesbian disguised as a man, says "You don't have to be anything but what you are." Oh, please. That is utterly out of time. There are other problems. Nobbs wants to marry but is somehow totally unaware of the fact that an overwhelming majority of people want there to be two sexes involved in their marriages. Nobbs is at least 30; has she not eyes to see and ears to hear? Not noticed that ALL of the couples dining, staying and fooling around at the hotel are two-sex couples? That the painter and her wife are the only lesbian couple she's ever run into? He twice spends time pondering the weighty but ludicrous question "Do I tell her (that I'm a woman) before the wedding or after?" And even though he seems to realize that that could be something of a surprise if not shock to the intended bride, and although aware that her painter pal could help out here, she manages (aided by the script's heavy hand) not to ask, despite numerous opportunities. How does Albert decided to marry, anyway? It seems to be mainly because someone told him to, and even fingered a convenient bride. It's not even clear that Nobbs knows the difference between a lesbian relationship and what used to be called a 'Boston marriage,' which involved 2 women living as friends, not lovers. Nor is it clear that Albert wants one or the other. My favorite scene comes when the painter, following up on his 'be who you are' baloney, clads himself and Albert in his wife's dresses (she has a little too-conveniently died, just out of the blue) and the two of the go for a walk on the beach. And lo and behold, it is a LIBERATING moment for Albert:he's wearing a dress! He's BEING WHO HE REALLY IS!! Albert goes running full-tilt down the deserted beach down, looking for all the world as if he's going to take off in a Johnathan Livingston Seagull moment or yell "I'm free! I'm free!"Laugh? I though I'd die. In short, this is a tedious collection of pious thought for right-thinking people, and a complete waste of time.
Review of Albert Nobbs
