DVD Review: Nobel Son

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Continuing on with my Alan Rickman kick, I picked up 'Nobel Son'. A 2006 indie heist film about a man named Barkley (Bryan Greenburg) who lives with his parents and is trying to finish his thesis paper on cannibalism. During all of this we find out his arrogant father Eli (Rickman) has just won the Nobel Peace Prize. Eli misses his flight to Stockholm with his parents and winds up kidnapped by Thaddius, (Shawn Hatosy) who is demanding 2 million dollars in ransom. This also happens to be the prize money for winning the Nobel prize, so Eli refuses.

There's a lot of recognizable names in this cast. Mary Steenburgen, Bill Pullman, Ted Danson, Danny DeVito and Eliza Dushku to name a few. What could've been a well crafted heist film turns into a mess with all the "twists" director Randall Miller throws at you. We are supposed to be rooting for Barkley and despise Eli. The way this film plays out you end up doing just the opposite. Eli was my favorite character. (Rick owns the screen every time he's on it) He was a bad man, but he ended up being a lot less annoying than the rest of the characters. The ending is meant to be a surprise, but it ends up feeling like a cluttered mess. The film nosed dives from the interesting opening to just another film with too many "but wait...there's more!" moments.

Recommended: No

Grade: C-

Memorable Quote: "You do D work you get a D Grade" - Eli Michalson (Alan Rickman) This quote was funny to me because of the action he's performing when he says it.

Comments

  1. fairylightsJuly 15, 2010 at 8:13 PM

    Totally agree with your review, I've been steadily working my way through Alan Rickman's work, and this remains the only one of his movies I was unable to finish. It was just poorly done.

    ReplyDelete

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