Albert Nobbs struggles to survive in late 19th century Ireland, where women aren't encouraged to be independent. Posing as a man, so she can work as a butler in Dublin's most posh hotel, Albert meets a handsome painter and looks to escape the lie she has been living.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.4/10
IMDb: 6.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.10/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 56%
Metacritic: 57
TMDB: 6.3/10
Director
Rodrigo García
Production
Mockingbird Pictures, Trillium Productions, Parallel Film Productions, Chrysalis Films, Allen & Associates, WestEnd Films
Cast
Glenn Close, Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Janet McTeer, Pauline Collins, Brenda Fricker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Brendan Gleeson, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Mark Williams, James Greene, Bronagh Gallagher, John Light, Serena Brabazon, Michael McElhatton, Dolores Mullally, Bonnie McCormack, Phyllida Law, Kenneth Collard
Curator Review
Verdict
A restrained period drama anchored by Glenn Close’s committed central performance, but its gender politics and melodramatic plotting have aged unevenly. It’s worth it if you’re drawn to character studies, Victorian repression, and awards-season acting showcases; less so if you want a nuanced or progressive treatment of identity.
Best for
fans of prestige period dramas
viewers interested in a strong lead performance
audiences who like slow-burn emotional repression
people curious about gender disguise narratives in historical settings
Skip if
you want a modern, affirming trans narrative
you’re sensitive to clumsy or dated identity politics
you prefer brisk plotting or high dramatic payoff
you dislike stately, melancholy period pieces
Overview
Albert Nobbs is built around a formidable performance from Glenn Close, and that is the main reason to see it. She gives the title character a tightly controlled sadness that fits the film’s world of class pressure, loneliness, and survival in a rigid late-19th-century Dublin hotel. The production design and costumes create a convincing cocoon of social constraint, and the film’s best scenes understand how small acts of desire can feel dangerous in such a sealed environment.
Worth noting
But the movie is also frustratingly limited by the way it frames gender and selfhood. What should feel like a searching portrait of identity often lands as a schematic melodrama, and the script’s handling of disguise, sexuality, and social violence can feel reductive or dated. Some supporting performances and side plots add texture, but they don’t fully solve the sense that the film is more interested in its premise than in the lived complexity behind it.
Bottom line
As a showcase for acting and atmosphere, it has real value. As a thoughtful exploration of gendered survival, it is much shakier. The result is an admirable but uneven film: compelling in moments, emotionally austere throughout, and ultimately more memorable for Close’s work than for the story around it.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Sally Jane Black · 251 likes
Infuriating.
This film is often classified as a trans film, and the narrative presented here has a lot of elements familiar to any trans person. The film, however, shows both characters as cis women posing as men to escape patriarchal violence. There are two main problems with this: the first is that it's a damaging cliche that trans people are influenced or created or constant victims of violence, and even though the film ostensibly isn't about two trans men, it… more
Nicole Ackman (1★) · 163 likes
This movie has so many problems...the only positive thing I can say is that Aaron Taylor-Johnson is really hot in it.
sydnie (2★) · 146 likes
the lengths i will go for ten minutes of aaron taylor johnson screen time is genuinely embarrassing
vin · 110 likes
the part where albert sees a pair of tits and runs away screaming is highly relatable
Killian Morlaes (3.5★) · 101 likes
Glenn Close spent two hours looking like Eddie Redmayne in Victorian cosplay.
A gentler period drama about migration, self-invention, and the ache of choosing a life.
Topics
period drama, prestige drama, Victorian Ireland, gender identity, social repression, character study, melancholy, class conflict, literary adaptation, award-season