Movie Review

Albert Nobbs
Disguise is freedom... or is it?

Release date: 2012

Rating: **1/2

By Katelyn Bright April 29, 2012

This drama that takes place in Ireland in the 19th century, tells the story of woman who wanted nothing more than the chance to be able to live out her dreams.

Opening the movie, you see a male figure serving in a fancy hotel for hoity toity passers by. But there is something peculiar about this male figure. He seems very alert, very quiet, always on guard. As the night winds down and guests retire to their rooms, so do the maids and butlers. Albert returns to his room to do his daily routine of counting his money that is stored under the floorboards of his room in the hotel where he stays.

Soon a painter by the name of Mr. Page comes to the hotel to make a few touch ups by Mrs. Baker, the hotel owner’s, bidding. Mr. Page’s job is one that will take a few days to finish, so he needs a place to stay while he is there to work. Mrs. Baker makes the proposal that Mr. Page share a bed with Mr. Nobbs. When Mr. Nobbs protests, the audience’s suspicions about him begin to rise. What is he hiding? Albert suggests that Mr. Page sleep on the couch downstairs. Mrs. Baker becomes outraged at this suggestion, and Albert has no choice but to allow Mr. Page to share a bed with him for the night.

That night, Albert returns to his room to retire for the night, finding Mr. Page already asleep in bed. As Albert lies down to rest without waking his unwanted guest, he suddenly starts to convulse. As he jumps out of bed, his surprise is not only revealed to the audience, but to Mr. Page as well. “Jesus, you’re a woman,” Page exclaims, as we see that Nobbs was trying desperately to unclasp the corset that was choking her. Nobbs automatically fell to her knees, begging Mr. Page not to let her secret out. Page promises to not tell, as long as Nobbs stops sniveling, as she was about to wake the others throughout the hotel.

The next day, Mr. Nobbs tries to serve Mr. Page while we works without intending to make things awkward, but fails. As he tries to thank Mr. Page for keeping her secret, Page pulls him aside to show Nobbs a secret of his own. As Page reveals what’s under his shirt, Nobbs is taken aback to discover Page is a woman as well.

Albert Nobbs continues to butler at the hotel, but day dreams of opening up her own tobacco shoppe with her hard earned money. She also dreams of having a wife alongside her to help run the shoppe.

As she dreams of these things, she wonders how in the world Page was able to have such success in the life she runs? By this time, Page has finished the painting tasks asked of Mrs. Baker, and has left the hotel. With so many questions to ask, Nobbs sets off to Page’s house for a visit. When he finds the house, a little woman opens the door, followed by Page. Nobbs is introduced to Kathleen and is invited to stay for supper. Page goes on to tell Nobbs her story and how she found Kathleen and how she’s adjusted to this life of being a man. Page tells Nobbs that any goal she has set in life, she should just go for it.

Nobbs then proceeds to make a move on one of the maid’s she’s had her eye on, Helen. But Helen is seeing Joe, the new boiler room worker. Even though Joe is abusive, Helen still continues to see him. Helen turns down the thought of “walking” with Mr. Nobbs, but Joe thinks it’s a great idea. He tells Helen that she should try and get things out of Mr. Nobbs. Joe’s main idea is to get money from Nobbs to sail to America. Helen goes out walking with Nobbs and gets a few things, but then he talks of opening up the shoppe with her, and Helen backs out.

Joe and Helen finally have a huge fight; Helen is pregnant and is warned that Joe will probably run out on her, even though he claims he won’t. Nobbs tries to defend Helen from Joe, but Joe knocks her down, causing her to hit her head really hard. Nobbs goes to lie down in bed, and ends up passing away. It is then discovered by society that she was a woman.

Mrs. Baker discovers Nobbs’ money and uses it to fix up and reopen the hotel, after it had been shut down due to a Typhoid outbreak. Mr. Page’s wife Kathleen had died from the outbreak. Helen has had her baby and is threatened to be thrown out into the streets. Mr. Page promises that she won’t let that happen, and it is implied that Page and Helen get together.

Although this movie may have been perceived as strange by some, I found it entertaining and enjoyed seeing it. I feel that it is a good movie to show for present times because of the gay rights movement. This movie shows the struggle that gays and lesbians face everyday; the risk of being judged and mistreated. The struggle, of course, was even more so in this film, not only because of the time period, but possibly also the setting. But it is still good to show here and now in America, because it shows the unjustness of the mistreatment of people who choose to live this way. All people are people, and we should all be treated equally.

Reflection for English 101

So, I have to admit that english has not always been my favorite subject in school. But I feel that the older I have gotten, the classes have become more easy to stand. This is because I feel that the focus went from annoying little things, like grammar and punctuation, to bigger things, such as writing styles. I’m not one for writing much either, but I find this better than going over rules all day, every day.
For English 101, I have found it interesting to focus on genre and learn about how it is in pretty much everything, not just books and movies. I think my favorite projects were the first and second ones; particularly the first one. I, by no means, would think to call myself an artist. But I had a lot of fun working on the computer to come up with and design a book cover. It made me feel very professional, even though I definitely am not. It also helped me learn some new ways that I can use the word document program, if I would need to use it for something like that in the future. I also liked learning about the different techniques that artists use to make things stand out and pop on a cover. I like learning about the significance of why the cover is designed a certain way. Same with the advertisement, I found it really interesting to find out about the different gimmicks that companies use to draw your attention and pull you into buying their products, simply from picking up a magazine to read in your free time!
Project 3 was definitely tedious, but it’s for good reasons, I know. Whenever I have to write a huge paper, such as a research paper, it helps remind me of how to properly write for my other classes. It is of the utmost importance to cite and learn how to do so. It is also important, just to learn how to write in a formal way. No one’s professor is going to even read a paper that has casual, modern-day language in it.
I would say that English 101 has taught me some good tips for future projects and reminders for writing. 372

Audience for Letters

For my two letters, I have chosen to write to my dad and to my adult friend from back home, Terre.

The reason I wanted to write to my dad is because I feel that my dad is one that I need to convince more to let me do certain things. My mom is very supportive of what I want to do with my life and wants me to be happy with whatever I plan to do. My dad wants me to be happy as well, but he always has to analyze everything and make sure it is practical, not just for pure happiness. So when it comes to things like what I want my career to be, he is very much an influence of me in that aspect, whether I want him to be or not. He wants to make sure job security is a priority in my life, which it is. But I oftentimes have to ensure him that what I want to do will be secure enough. He makes me look up facts and information about things, which is tedious and annoying sometimes. But I know he’s doing it for my best interest.

The reason I wanted to write a letter for my friend Terre is because I feel like she was a big influence on me with what I chose to do in high school and who I wanted to become in the long run. She is very much supportive of anything I want to do with my life, and she is sort of like a second mom figure to me. Terre is the kind of person that wants to know what’s going on in people’s lives all the time, but not in an annoying way. She’s just a very caring, compassionate person that wants to keep in contact with you. She’s always ready to listen and be there for you when you need her. I know that she would be very excited to hear about what my next step in life is going to be and she would support me all the way. 348

Summer

For this week’s blog, I would love to complain about how sick of school I am, but I don’t know if I could talk about that for a whole three hundred words. So instead, I’ll talk about how excited I am for this summer and what all I have planned.

I am really excited for summer because I will be able to have a nice long break where I can just relax at home. I won’t be totally free from school however. I plan to take a summer class at Parkland Community College in Champaign. It’s Math 119 because I plan on taking 120 in the fall. I’m not really looking forward to it, but I’m hoping it won’t be so bad, and I might be able to get some help from friends back at home. I will most likely be getting my old job from high school back for the summer, so that’ll be nice for my bank account. I am also hoping to get a second job just for the weekends. There is a place in my home town called Allerton Park, and it is beautiful. A lot of people hold weddings there during the summer, so hopefully  I can help serve at those for some extra cash. I am excited about this job. Ever since I saw the main character, Daphne, with this job in “What A Girl Wants”, I always thought this job looked like fun and I wanted to try it. I know that’s a lame reason for wanting to do it, but oh well.

Even though I am glad to be getting a break, I have mixed feelings about how fun this summer will be. I think it might just be plain weird, because I won’t be with any of my friends from here at school, and a lot of my friends from high school will be busy doing other things as well over the summer. So hopefully we’ll be able to get together every now and then, but we’ll just see. This could make for a really interesting summer. 346

Major

                My major here at ISU is psychology. I originally wanted to be an early childhood education major. But by the time I decided this at the end of senior year, the program was all full. So I was going to have to wait to get into the program. But over Christmas break, I took a day to job shadow a lady that changed my mind. She is a school psychologist and she works in a couple preschools. I went with her to one school in Decatur one day to observe the classrooms and the teachers’ classroom techniques. But as we (Sheree and I) went around to each different classroom, observing the one “target” child for that day, I found that I really enjoyed just sitting back and observing one child at a time for struggles they may be having. The last half of the day, we tested one little boy for autism. It was soooo interesting; I loved it. At the beginning of the day, Sheree had told me her goal that day was to switch my major from education to psychology. At first, I just laughed it off. By the end of the day, it wasn’t so funny anymore. She had reached her goal.

In February, I applied to be an official psychology major, and I got it! I am very excited about my major now. Even though I will have to go to graduate school (which I’d rather avoid), I think it will be worth it in the end. I realize now that this will be a way better position for me than being a teacher. I still love working with little kids, but now I get to work one-on-one with them to help the ones struggling find a “game plan” to learn better; something I will like much better than trying to keep twenty-something kids’ attention all day, every day. I am considering adding a child studies minor, I think it will be beneficial (and I heard it’s easy). I am also looking into volunteering next year at a place here in Normal called The Autism Place. There I would be able to work with children who had this disability. I am very excited about my major and the  work I plan to do in the future. 380

College Class

                One college class that I have really enjoyed taking this spring is my Acting One class. The reason I took this class is because at one point in the beginning of first semester I tried to be a double major with Early Childhood Education and Theatre Studies. I thought that maybe I could try to teach preschool age children, but maybe try and do theatre education for adolescents on the side, but really I think I just wanted to do theatre for fun; I love it! But I even though I was only taking one theatre class last semester, I quickly realized how much time it would take out of my day just to focus on theatre, and that didn’t even include what all I would do for my education major. So, I decided to drop the theatre major. The cool thing about ISU’s theatre program is that anyone can audition to be in shows without being a theatre major or minor. So I plan to audition for shows next year. That’s partially why I decided to go ahead and keep my acting class for this semester. I knew that high school acting was a little different than acting in college and beyond, so I wanted to learn techniques before I auditioned here at school. It’s been really cool to learn new ways of acting. As my acting teacher says, in high school you are rewarded in acting for being the most outrageous character up on stage. But in college, acting is about “getting the job done”. Sometimes being too “showy” in college theatre can get you in trouble; it just looks too fake. With getting the job done, you need to be as real as you can be. You need to get as close as possible to how you would really respond to situations as you would in real life. In our real lives, you say and do things in order to get what you want; well, this goes for acting as well. 334

Research Paper

For my research paper, I am discussing adult patients dealing with the emotional struggles of childhood sexual abuse. I find this topic very interesting; even though it is a very depressing topic, I am fascinated with how this type of trauma can sort of warp the mind.

I find that I always have trouble with finding sources when first coming up with material to research with. I guess maybe I should rephrase that; I do not really have that much trouble finding sources, I just have anxiety that I will. Even when coming up with a topic can be stressful. It’s not that I can’t come up with topics, I just always try to think ahead and think if I will be able to come up with enough credible sources to obtain information. To overcome my anxiety, I always talk to my teacher about what my ideas are and get reassurance for if they are good, or get advice for how I can improve and come up with more ideas.

Another problem that I sometimes encounter is just simply keeping my focus. I often get distracted very easily when working on the computer. This is because I love to flip on and off from sites such as facebook and pinterest. It is very hard for me to stay off of these sites sometime. I go to sit down and write my paper, and before I know it, I have been sitting facebook creeping for an hour and a half. Sometimes it helps if I go somewhere other than my dorm room. I usually like to stay and do homework in my room because of pure laziness. But I know that if I’m not getting work done, it’s time to move and go somewhere like the library for a couple hours.  300