Movies

Gender-bending has often been shown on screen with flair and ingenuity. From the delicious stage antics of Shakespeare in Love to the crass twin-sister premise of Adam Sandler's recent Jack and Jill, the concept is rife with intriguing possibilities. Albert Nobbs transports us to poverty-stricken 19th century Dublin for a unique take on the theme.

The titular character (the film's writer, producer and star Glenn Close) has worked as a butler at a Dublin hotel for 30 years. Albert is actually a woman, but maintains a male facade to retain her independence and avoid a poorer life. When a new co-worker discovers her secret, Nobbs calls into question her identity and pursues a different life that could unlock his loneliness.

Albert Nobbs is a largely subdued affair that works best as a Downton Abbey-style tale of the upstairs-downstairs divide in a posh hotel. The central drama of Nobbs teeters between the poignant and the pathetic, a fault of the protagonist's dogged motivation to keep his gender a secret. When there are plenty of women working in the hotel, it makes little sense why Nobbs feels so burdened by her gender.

There's not enough explanation as to why Nobbs ended up this way, except for one scene where Nobbs talks of her childhood, but the emotional impact is again muted.

Critics have raved about Close's performance, and while it's a brave role, she appears strangely artificial with a blank stare like a wax figure for most of the film. It's in steep contrast to the warm and boisterous faces of the wonderful supporting cast, like the brilliant Janet McTeer, The Guard's Brendan Gleeson and Australian actress Mia Wasikowska, who adds another solid dramatic role to her burgeoning CV (Jane Eyre, The Kids are All Right).

Albert Nobbs comes close to a moving tear-jerker about how troubled people survive during tough times, so it's bound to resonate to some degree with modern audiences.