Albert Nobbs

[noracharles]

It's another fucking Brokeback Mountain. Don't bother.

I will say that Janet McTeer is amazing as Mr. Page, and I will seek out more movies starring her. But even she does not make it worth it to put up with this shit. For shame, Glenn Close.

Comments

[noracharles]

Heh, I'm sorry I watched that too :-)

But you know, my mother loves costume dramas, and I wanted to spend time with her, so that in itself made my time well spent.

I used to like Glenn Close so much! But to see her having fought for so many years to make this dreck happen, including changing the ending of the original novella to give the main character the requisite violent death... it's just not on.

Regarding Brokeback Mountain, I haven't actually watched it, because of being told of the tragic ending. I do generally like Ang Lee's films, and presume that considering it in isolation it is a very good film. I feel that way about Boys Don't Cry - beautiful, well-acted, amazing development of the setting, and worthwhile to me despite the ending, not least of all because it is a true story, not purely fiction made up to convey a certain agenda.

As for Albert being inherently off-putting and unsympathetic: many people have said so in their reviews. I liked him quite a bit, but I see what you mean. However, Kathleen was absolutely charming and sympathetic, no? And Mr. Page was extremely appealing to me, despite the rape-trigger scene. Then again, the drunken, gambling waiter whose name I forget, the one who was also beat up and called homophobic slurs by Joe was as pathetic as every man in the movie.

What I had a problem with moreso than the main character being Other was how all men are drunks and most of them are violent and useless, and women only turn to other women out of necessity. And how being queer (whether not-straight or gender queer) is a metaphor for the anguish cis, straight people feel when engaged in a cross-class romance, when being a bastard or having a child out of wedlock, or when compelled into putting on a professional face and fulfilling a social role (wtf!).

I mean, yeah, societal pressure, public shaming, the torment of keeping secrets, the individual versus society and all that, it's not that I don't see the parallels, but it's not okay to make a movie about queer people which is really all about the troubles of cis, straight people and how they were inspired or given money or given a husband to lend legitimacy to them by the queer characters.

[calvinahobbes]

Ah yes, the lure of the costume drama :oP

I didn't know the original ending had been changed. But yeah, part of what made me curious was knowing how long Close had fought to make it happen :o/

I can't quite articulate what about Albert made him unappealing to me. I think I read him as a bit of a creeper sometimes; the way he fixates on Helen and Mr. Page's & Cathleen made me uncomfortable, but I don't know how much of that was embarrassment squick. But yes, Page and Cathleen were really awesome together, I totally shipped that.

The part that really made me claw at my face was the apalling back-story bit with Albert, where it is firmly established that not only is he Weird, he is 'made that way' because he was assaulted as a child. I guess it fits in perfectly with the Men Are Monsters theme?

But yes, I totally agree with your interpretation of the ending. I felt so disgusted by the connotation that Albert was just a problem, an abnormality who got in the way of these people leading their normal lives, and how order was re-established when he was gone and they could cannibalise what he had left behind.