Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

MBunge This is one of the worst written movies I've ever watched…and that's saying a lot. It compounds that by having one of the most annoying and intrusive soundtracks I've ever heard…and that's saying a lot. If Nobel Son had not had such a talented cast, I think I would have slit my throat before getting halfway through it.Barkley Michaelson (Bryan Greenberg) is a hapless sad sack who's working on his PhD thesis on cannibalism and trying to survive on a piddling allowance from his father. Eli Michaelson (Alan Rickman) is an insufferable a-hole who mistreats everyone around him, including his family and the women he screws on the side, and has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Sarah Michaelson (Mary Steenburgen) is a forensic psychologist who…well, that's pretty much it for her. Sarah's about as generic and undefined a character as you get. The only reason she's a forensic psychologist and not a go-go dancer is that she needs to have the more impressive job to mouth a few lines of dialog that I'm sure the writers of this disaster were way too proud of.Just as the Michaelson family is about to fly to Stockholm to see Eli receive his prize, Barkley is kidnapped by Thaddeus James (Shawn Hatosy) and held for $2 million ransom. Thaddeus claims to be the spawn of one of Eli's affairs and wants revenge for Eli stealing his Nobel Prize winning idea from Thaddeus' non-biological father, who killed himself when he realized his wife had cheated on him with Eli. Even though Thaddeus kidnaps Barkley, their mutual animosity towards Eli causes them to team up and turn it into a fake kidnapping where they will split the money.Their scam succeeds, but then Thaddeus turns up to rent a room in the Michaelson's house and starts ingratiating himself with Eli, which seems to send Barkley around the bend and starts a game of cat-and-mouse where it's clear who the cat is but not always who's the mouse. Throw in a detective (Bill Pullman) with the hots for Sarah and an obviously unstable poet (Eliza Dushku) who boinks Barkely, and that's Nobel Son.I'm sure there are some dullards out there impressed with the many plot twists of this fast-moving piece of garbage. That's because they never notice the underlying story here doesn't make a lick of sense.Eli treats his wife like crap, even holding her up for public ridicule in front of all of his colleagues. In the entire film, there's only 30 seconds where these two characters show any affection or connection to each other and that happens 40 minutes into the movie. Is there any explanation for why Sarah, a smart woman with her own career, has stayed with this verbally and emotionally abusive bastard for so many years? No. Eli has nothing but contempt and disdain for Barkley, yet still very much wants him to be there when Eli gets his Nobel. Is there any explanation for that? No! When Eli gets the call about his son being kidnapped, he immediately assumes Barkley is pulling some sort of scam. That's a fairly bizarre first reaction, no matter how much ill will exists between them. Is there any explanation of why Eli would ever think Barkely could think up, let alone actually pull off, such an extreme deception? No!! The Almighty Plot Hammer needs a character to disappear to set up the film's conclusion. Is there any explanation of where she went or what happened to her? No!!! After the first 3/4ths of Nobel Son establishes Thaddeus as a violent, sociopathic genius who knows everything about everyone and crafts incredibly intricate plans, in the last 1/4th he becomes a quivering buffoon who doesn't have a clue what the hell he's doing. Is there any explanation for that transformation? NO!!! Is the audience ever given a single reason to sympathize or identify with Barkley, a limp wristed and pretentious douche who's too damn lazy to get a job so he doesn't have to live on a $35 dollar allowance from his jerk of a daddy? NOOOOOOO!!!!!Oh, and even though Nobel Son is clearly set in 2007, the entire plot is dependent on no one in the film having a cell phone. If even one character had a cell, none of the story would have worked at all.This movie is just filled with stuff that falls apart if you think about any of it for more than two seconds. Intensifying the painful suckage is this irritating techno pop music that co-writer/director Randall Miller constantly slathers over almost every scene. Watching Nobel Son is like being a quadriplegic fan of Beethoven and Bach stuck in a warehouse while a teenage rave with the worst synthesized music in the world goes on around you.This motion picture is almost as terrible as the most wretched thing to ever burst out of the mind of Michael Bay. Don't watch it.

Roland E. Zwick Grad student Barkley Michaelson (Bryan Greenberg) is getting his PhD in cannibalism - not for actually eating his fellow man, mind you, but for studying those who do. This choice of topic doesn't sit very well with his dad, a hateful, arrogant college professor who's just been awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry and who wants his son to carry on his legacy after he's gone. Unfortunately, as Professor Eli Michaelson is over in Stockholm receiving his award, Barkley is back home in Pasadena being held for ransom by a crazed kidnapper. This is the setup for "Nobel Son," an Oedipal drama done in the form of a smart-alecky, wisecracking pitch dark comedy. Acting stalwarts Mary Steenburgen, Shawn Hatosy, Bill Pullman, Danny DeVito and Ted Danson round out the cast.If there's one thing a filmmaker can't fake, it's "coolness" - yet that's the one thing writer/director Randall Miller keeps working so hard to achieve in "Nobel Son," a movie that too often comes across as a poor-man's version of Quentin Tarentino. Yet, despite that derivativeness, the movie's frenetic style - a mixture of razzle-dazzle camera and editing techniques, snarky black humor, and a pounding rock soundtrack - reveals that Miller has some real potential as a filmmaker. And a series of nifty plot twists in the final third go a long way towards mitigating any misgivings we may have harbored about the movie earlier on.

princess_t_storm i was expecting this to actually be good because of a positive review by a critic who knows film and writes for my local paper. i'm surprised at just how bad it is. first off, the lighting leaves much to be desired. it's far too dark throughout the film. i'm sure this is on purpose, for some reason. second, the editing. lots of scenes in this film are shot like a music video, with quick editing and electronic music playing over it. it also doesn't cover up the flat direction that i believe is at the heart of this film. third, the music again. it's not just played in the quick-edit montages but throughout more static moments in the film. it does not help the film, in my opinion. also, i don't believe that it adds the sense of excitement that i think it is probably intended to. although with a film this uninvolving and flat i don't know that there's any music that could have helped. but the electronica seemed a bad choice. also, there's little to no character development. i really didn't care what happened to any of the characters after a while, so i stopped watching. all in all, i found this film to be a sub-mediocre disappointment of an attempt at quirky black comedy. i give it a 2 because it has some good-to-decent acting despite the uninspired, flat direction.

ricknix50 I thoroughly enjoyed this film, from beginning to end. The superb acting of Mary Steenburgen, Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, and Danny DeVito, was icing on the cake of an already fantastic movie. My adrenaline was pumping throughout the film with a great soundtrack by Paul Oakenfold. It's nice to go to the movies and see a truly independent film made with such a wide release, and such a great cast. Randall Miller, who co-wrote, and co-produced with Jody Savin and also directed and edited this film, did a wonderful job, and deserves great respect. Every scene was captivating and fun with Bryan Greenberg and Shawn Hatosy proving themselves in starring roles. While movies like Revolutionary Road, and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button are getting all the credit for such moving performances and so on, but this film deserves great recognition for the true genius of every second of this film. Truly the unsung hero, underdog, and most underrated film of the year. Don't miss out on any chance to see this film.