There are a lot of excellent movies that fall through the cracks of the theater, either due to bad marketing, general disinterest from the mainstream, or just ignorance of its very existence. Nobel Son may not exactly be an excellent film, nor as brilliant as it probably wanted to be, but it certainly deserved more than the generally negative reviews it received. Screened at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival first, it was picked up a year later for distribution and made about 540k overall. Not great, but at least it didn't die immediately after being slapped in the face, for the movie has more merit than the critics gave it.
Eli Michaelson (Alan Rickman) is a philandering professor who wins the Nobel Prize and this just feeds into his already oversized ego. He is generally disliked by everyone who knows him, including his own son Barkley (Bryan Greenberg) who is a PhD student studying cannibalism. Barkley misses the flight to Sweden when he meets up the weird City Hall (Eliza Dushku) and jumps into bed with her. Upon running home, he is kidnapped and tied up by the mentally unstable Thaddeus James (Shawn Hatosy). Thaddeus is actually Barkley's half-brother, the child of Eli and one of his affairs. Thaddeus claims Eli stole the ideas of his 'father' and wants to take all the money from his Nobel Prize which he never earned in the first place. Barkley makes a deal with his brother and together they blackmail their father. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The first part of the movie, the primary story, is somewhat bizarre and yet tightly held together. The story, characters, and dialogue work together well and lead you in the right direction, but once the heist is over things take a turn for the 'what?' So the tables are turned on the villains, but were they the villains? To be honest none of the characters in the movie are really likable, except perhaps Eli's tragic wife Sarah (Mary Steenburgen). Sure, Barkely had a jerk for a father, but he's just so whiny and entitled. Eli may be horrible, yet he has that air of charm that only Alan Rickman can pull off. The man can be so slimy and yet so charismatic all at once. Who are you really rooting for in the movie? No one. They pretty much all deserve one another.
The movie is not poorly done or acted, it simply feels too contrived and two-dimensional. What might have been a rather interesting dark comedy went a little mainstream and 'oh happy ending!' out of the blue, which seemed like a tone shift that didn't quite add up. Still, the movie is an entertaining watch and there is always something satisfying about bad people getting what's coming to them. It's equally satisfying to know that bad people will keep being bad anyway, because life's just like that. The odd characters from Dushku and Hatosy are interesting, amusing even, but a personal favorite would be the appearance of Danny DeVito as a recovering obsessive-compulsive living next door. His mumbling about plants and bicycle sounds is endearing. Another delightful blip is Bill Pullman, although he's not given much with his good guy detective character. Honestly none of the characters are fleshed out more than caricatures of people, but at least they are all given the same treatment.
Overall, Nobel Son is certainly worth a DVD rental, but unless you like the dark comedy genre and think this sounds interesting, it might not be up your alley as a buy. It's also rated R for language, violence, and mild nudity. The film might end up overall forgettable, but it's a pleasant romp for a night in and more than a little creepy at times (what is up with those masks?!). On the DVD there is a commentary, deleted scenes, a 'Making of' featurette, and trailers for other films. The bare minimum for DVD extras, but certainly more than I've seen on other recent releases. Nobel Son came out on DVD Tuesday, June 9th, and is in stores now!
ComicsOnline gives Nobel Son 3 out of 5 Elizas.
