“Lovely, Sweet and Tragic”

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

Albert Nobbs is a project that star Glenn Close has been working on since she won an Obie for playing the role in 1982 in a play in New York City.

Finally released in 2011, the film not only stars Close, but she also cowrote it, coproduced it, and wrote the lyrics for the film’s theme song.

The story takes place in 19th-century Dublin, and the title character is a waiter working in a hotel who has a closely held secret: Albert is actually a woman posing as a man in order to earn a steady wage in the harsh Irish economy and repressed society.

In fact, Close herself said in an interview about the situation of women at that time, “Women had absolutely no rights if you had no money and no family.”

Eventually we learn the tragic story that caused Albert to pose as a man in order to earn money for herself, and we see her try to be as inconspicuous as possible as she goes about her duties in Morrison’s Hotel.

The guests refer to Albert as “such a kind little man,” and Albert doesn’t show any outward reaction to the shenanigans of the more rowdy and roisterous guests.

Every night Albert counts the money she has earned that day, records the amount in a ledger, and hides it all underneath a floorboard in her room upstairs in the hotel before going to bed.

You see, Albert has a dream: She is saving her money to buy a small store in which she can own a tobacco shop and run it from behind the counter.

And then Albert’s plans change.

She gets the idea that it would be easier if she were to marry a woman while still posing as a man, and then the two of them together could run the tobacco shop. And so Albert begins courting Helen, a young maid who works at Morrison’s Hotel, and who is played by Mia Wasikowska.

Unfortunately, Helen is in love with Joe, a young handyman who also works and lives at the hotel, who has told Helen about his plans to take them both to America.

However, Joe encourages Helen to go out walking with Albert in order to get as much from Albert as she can.

Albert Nobbs is lovely, sweet, and tragic.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”