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Movie Review for Nobel Son (2008)
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Review #711 of 365 Movie Review of Nobel Son (2008) [R] 102 minutes WIP™ Scale: $14.00 Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO When Seen: 2 December 2008 @ 7:00 pm DVD Release Date: Unscheduled (please check back) After the Credits: There is nothing after the credits Unsung Member of the Crew: Main Title Animator – John Hope
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Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From): Alan Rickman (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ) • Bryan Greenberg ("One Tree Hill") • Shawn Hatosy (Alpha Dog) • Mary Steenburgen (Step Brothers) • Bill Pullman (You Kill Me) • Eliza Dushku ("Tru Calling" ) • Danny DeVito (The Good Night) • Ted Danson (Mad Money) • Ernie Hudson ("Desperate Housewives") • Tracey Walter (Relative Strangers) • Lindy Booth (Cry_Wolf ) • Kevin West (The Pursuit of Happyness)
Pay no attention to the garish poster and its over-emphasis on yellow, Danny DeVito, Eliza Dushku, and Alan Rickman, for it is but a wrongly painted picture of who really is the Nobel not noble son, Barkley Michaelson as brought to life by the charismatic and incredibly talented "One Tree Hill" alumnus, Bryan Greenberg. If the marketing of this film were to be any indication of how good it is, most people would never have heard of it and the aforementioned poster would surely scare away the rest—including those who see the film and then wonder if the poster artist saw the film or clips of it. The title, also, can be a bit intimidating. It takes a few moments, especially for those of us with 'el' 'le' dyslexia to figure out it's No-bel not Noble. In other words, the son, Barkley is the son of a Nobel Prize Winner. That's right, his father, Eli (Alan Rickman) is an unconscionably arrogant philandering piece of work whose achievements in chemistry are lauded by the Nobel committee at just around the same time that Barkely is realizing he's really got to get his act together, finish his PhD thesis on the sociological and anthropological implications of cannibalism probably chosen the immeasurably talented writing team of Randall Miller (who also directed) and Jody Savin because then they could use the quotation about how it's far more cruel to eat a man alive than to eat a man whose dead—you'll have to take the time to look that one up, I'm paraphrasing it. Anyway, poor Barkley's got real Daddy Dearest issues right down to loathing the $35 a month living allowance his father graciously affords him. His mom, Sarah (Mary Steenburgen), adores him to a fault. Well on the very eve of their departure for Stockholm, Barkley meets his soul mate, the wandering beat poet, City Hall (Eliza Dushku). She's intense, hot, and ready to trot, but only after he proves he's not lying about being broke by wearing a paper sack clown mask up to an ATM to get his balance slip. A night of passion, ultimately will be his undoing as the next day he's late getting home, misses his parents' departure for the airport, and ends up getting bonked in the head and kidnapped upon arriving at home. The 'reformed' obsessive compulsive neighbor Mr. Gastner (Danny DeVito) was all that was left behind to let him know his plane tickets were on the counter. Poor Gastner had to leave for work 10 minutes late, with not sign of Barkley. What happens next is a complex and unexpected but hilarious and ingenious web of intrigue that will surround the intermingling of the lives of Barkley, his kidnapper Thaddeus James (Shawn Hatosy), the mysterious City Hall or is it Capitol Hill, and Sarah's detective friend, Max Mariner (Bill Pullman).
Well, first off, I loved Randall Miller's Marilyn Hotckiss! It was one of the best, but most underappreciated movies of the year that it debuted. Nobel Son possesses many of the same quirky characters and interesting plot takes. Nobel has more comedy and less romance. There are some curious plot holes in Nobel, most notably, nobody seems to notice that the police just sort of disappear near the end and fail to investigate and make some pretty logical connections. But, for me, I was willing to throw all of that aside for Bryan Greenberg's performance. He's insanely awesome! Of course, his role works so well because of the excellent job by Shawn Hatosy as his foil. The only person who might have played Thaddeus better is Casey Affleck. So, in the end, what you have here is one of the better comedies of the year, at least as quirky and fun as last year's Juno (which, I'm sorry, but I thought was way over-rated and its acclaim an obvious make up for totally ignoring Thank You for Smoking). Maybe Nobel Son can also serve as a make up for the critics totally missing out on Marily Hotchkiss? Let's hope so!
Bryan Greenberg is insanely awesome as the son of Nobel Prize-winner Eli Michaelson (Alan Rickman) who gets kidnapped and held for ransom of $2 million in this hilarious, but occasionally plot-holed comedy written and directed by Randall Miller.
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