ALARIS' REVIEWS

20th June 2009
Nobel Son (2007)

I didn't know much about this film prior to seeing it, aside from the fact that Alan Rickman is in it, and it has something to do with a Nobel Prize. Unfortunately, Nobel Son turned out to be one of the more unpleasant films I've seen lately.

Eli Michaelson (Alan Rickman) is a thoroughly obnoxious, egotistical academic, whose only son is kidnapped on the eve of Eli's Nobel Prize win. This should have been the set up for some dramatic soul searching, breathless plot twists, or hilarious hijinks, but Nobel Son skids along unevenly without any real emotional investment.

One of the main problems is the fact that none of the characters are likeable. In fact, by the halfway mark, you're kind of hoping they'd all just implode. The kidnapped son (Bryan Greenberg) seems to be the protagonist, but he comes across as a creepy loner obsessed with cannibalism, and not averse to taking advantage of emotionally disturbed young women.

Rickman does a good job of making Eli extravagantly unsympathetic, but this doesn't actually make the other characters more appealing. The least distasteful character, Eli's long suffering wife (Mary Steenburgen from Joan of Arcadia, 2003), isn't given much to do until the very end of the film.

Plot holes and incompetent flatfoots abound, accompanied by the occasional dollop of gore. Nobel Son could have been a far better movie had the characters been given a touch more warmth or charisma, but as it stands, it's a fairly unpleasant film about unpleasant people doing unpleasant things to each other.

On a side note, Danny DeVito makes a nice cameo as the family's neighbour, and Eliza Dushku puts in a very 'is she *supposed* to be like that?' performance as a wannabe poet.

Verdict: A lumpy and somewhat unpleasant thriller that isn't as interesting or as edgy as it thinks it is.

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