Nobel Son (2007)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Randall Miller

Writers (WGA):

Jody Savin (written by) &
Randall Miller (written by)

Release Date:

5 December 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Keep your eyes on the prize.

Plot:

Barkley Michaelson is in a deep life rut. He's struggling to finish his PhD thesis when his father, the learned Eli Michaelson...

Plot Keywords:

Nobel Prize | Revenge | Phd | Ransom | Fraud

Cast

Alan Rickman	...	Eli Michaelson
Bryan Greenberg	...	Barkley Michaelson
Shawn Hatosy	...	Thaddeus James
Mary Steenburgen	...	Sarah Michaelson
Bill Pullman	...	Det. Max Mariner
Eliza Dushku	...	City Hall
Danny DeVito	...	George Gastner
Lindy Booth	...	Beth Chapman
Tracey Walter	...	Simon Ahrens
Ted Danson	...	Harvey Parrish
Ernie Hudson	...	Sgt. Bill Canega
Hal B. Klein	...	Tully's Guy
Kevin West	...	Jaundice
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kirk Baily	...	Wil Cavalere
Dawn Balkin	...	Stewardess
Greg Collins	...	Foreman
Reid Collums	...	Delivery Guy
Lucy DeVito
Tiffany Downey	...	Model
Bennett Dunn	...	Bartender
Mark Famiglietti	...	Officer Relyea
Mary Pat Gleason	...	Ruby
Brendon Graham	...	Soldier
Joyce Guy	...	Eileen Moses
Larry Hankin	...	Dr. Polaczek
Juliette Jeffers	...	Claire
Matthew Kimbrough	...	Deacon
Joe Koons	...	Poet
Valerie Long	...	Excrement Woman
Wayne Lopez	...	Cabbie
Danika Quinn	...	Opera Singer (as Danika Osterman)
Dean Rader-Duval	...	Ernie
Johanna Torell	...	Analea
Matt Winston	...	Clifford
Avis Wrentmore	...	Model

MPAA:

Rated R for some violent gruesome images, language and sexuality.

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | Dolby SR

Certification:

USA:R | Ireland:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

City of Industry, California, USA

Company:

Gimme Five Films

Trivia:

Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson are married in real life, but their characters never interact. Danson's role is little more than a cameo.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: A studio boom mic is clearly visible when the reporter is giving a report from the families' front yard, even though the reporter is speaking into a microphone.

Quotes:

Eli Michaelson: If anyone in this room ever doubted my intellectual superiority, you may now formally kiss my fine white ass.

Movie Connections:

References Scarface (1932)

Prize Winner

"Nobel Son" is one of the more entertaining movies of the year. It is an intriguing, quirky mix of quick-cutting, edgy direction; an outstanding cast; and some unusually literate text and sophisticated in-jokes for the who-is-doing-it (rather than who-done-it) genre.

Randall Miller is the MTV director, Miller and Jody Savin - each with a rather meager resume as a writer - are responsible for the winning script.

It's rare and fortuitous these days to walk into a theater to see a movie whose plot you know, and still be engaged and surprised. Such is the case here.

With deliberate exaggeration and advance apologies, I'd compare "Nobel Son" to "Sleuth" both for its tit-for-tat, now-you-see-it/now-you-don't continuous cliff-hanger nature, and the sense of amusement and fun even through some rather harrowing action. "Son" is *like* "Sleuth" in the true sense of that grossly abused word: having some of the same characteristics.

Only a great English stage actor such as Alan Rickman could make the silly cartoon figure of Eli Michaelson believable - and he does, becoming sort of likable in his unfettered loathsomeness. Michaelson is rotten to the core, antisocial beyond the worst case of Asperger's, plus a miserable human being - and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Mary Steenburgen plays his long-suffering wife, a character with a vaguely delineated past as a storied criminal investigator. Never too far from her is Bill Pullman, a detective, former colleague, current shoulder to lean on. Bryan Greenberg is the son, who - as you must know from all the ads and buzz - is held for ransom, apparently by Shawn Hatosy, a young actor who more than holds his own against the veterans in the cast. Danny Devito and Ted Danson show up, unnecessarily but - in the case of Danson - not irritatingly. Eliza Dushku has a star-turn debut as City Hall (that's the name), a looney poet, painter, and fornicator (their word, not mine).

There is something inexplicable about the cinematography: everybody in the cast looks like hell, sans makeup, sans Vaseline-smeared lens, sans everything. Pullman wins the race to Showing All the Pores, pasty-white, as unattractive as possible, but the others - including the women - are not far behind. A new trend? Makeup crew on strike? Who knows? For sure it's distracting, but "Son" is too good to allow this stupid quirk to interfere.