Albert Nobbs: Press reviews

'eminently watchable — it just doesn't add up to a whole that tugs on the emotions as it should'

'If this is indeed the 65-year-old Close's Great Moment then it's an unfinished, limp one, and with all the strangled mentality of the Catholic Ireland of the day.'

'Albert Nobbs is a sweet, tender tragicomedy, and Close is so winning that you soon stop worrying about her androgynous android appearance. '

'Close, (...) sporting a sub-cockney accent disturbingly reminiscent of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, is both the film's generous begetter and also its central problem.'

'It's Mrs Doubtfire without knobs on'

'Not only sad, sad, sad but dreary and unpleasant, peopled with largely unsympathetic characters but for McTeer, who is great'

'At once stilted and melodramatic, this is a desperately ill-conceived adaptation of a fascinating story. '

'Albert Nobbs is constantly reaching for something — heck, anything — to say about sexual identity, but neither Close nor her director, Rodrigo García, seem to know quite what it should be.'

'this is a very inert, middlebrow quality drama.'

'The extent of Albert's masochistic delusion is meant to exact pathos, but it's unfortunately just creepy – and ridiculous. '

'there's precious little to enjoy.'

'Good performances, but it's difficult to give two hoots about Close's passion project when the story remains as pinched and hermetic as poor little Albert Nobbs himself.'