Rated R
Running time: 1 hr 42 mins
Cast:
** out of *****
(21% Fresh Rating!)
Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:
** out of *****
The Premise:
On the verge of receiving the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Professor Eli Michaelson (Alan Rickman) learns that kidnappers have snatched his son Barkley (Bryan Greenberg), a promising graduate student. But when the captors want a ransom of $2 million -- the exact amount of the Nobel Prize money -- the self-serving Eli refuses to cough up the cash in this vitriolic tale about an acutely dysfunctional family. Shawn Hatosy and Mary Steenburgen also star.
MY REVIEW
If by some chance you are like me, and see over 150 movies a year, you may have the same feelings towards this film that I did. I'm not saying that's a fact, but just a possibility. Nobel Son falls into the category of "not all that bad, but not all that good". It's just one of those run of the mill, random, average movies that in the long run is pretty forgettable. At least for me personally. I can however see how some people would in fact be attracted to a film like this and enjoy it. So I don't want to say for sure that this film will have the same effect on everyone else like it did for me. This movie was just weird, plain and simple. It had a very eccentric cast, a very busy plotline, and an over the top musical score.
I don't mean that the cast was bad, because actually they weren't bad at all. Most of them were pretty good and entertaining. Namely the always fun Alan Rickman (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Harry Potter fame). As far as I can tell this guy never plays a likeable character, but I guess that's his thing. But he's so good at it I think! This may have been his worst persona ever (even over the dreadful Proffessor Snape and the evil Judge Turpin). This guy just hates everything that doesn't glorify him. He's selfish, he's rude, he's a jerk! But Rickman plays him in that "love to hate him" kind of way, and I just thought he was fantastic! Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard, Step Brothers) isn't someone I've seen a whole lot of, but I thought she was perfect here! She has to play the worried mother and the wife of this dreadful man. She plays this character so balanced, but in the scenes were she sort of snaps, man she's good! The rest of the supporting cast all did well too I thought. Eliza Dushku (TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TV's Tru Calling) was bizzare as heck but that was her character.
The story was all over the place! Not totally in a bad way, but it did tend to be a bit much after a while. Seriously there was like two kidnapping plots, an ATM robber plot, the story of Rickman's character and his affairs and his nobel prize, and the story of the kidnapper who may or may not be related to Rickman. I think it was to much packed in to one story in the length of time we got. If the film was about twenty minutes longer, the story may have flowed with ease a bit better. What I mean is, this movie all seemed rushed. It moved way to fast. However you still get the idea of the story, and don't lose much of it and never really get confused. So in a way, it balanced itself out.
What I really did not care for was the obnoxious musical score! I've always said a musical score can make or break a movie, and this one nearly breaks it. It was like toned down techno music that seemed to play non stop the whole movie. The music was loud and sometimes actually drained out the dialog. It was used in the wrong ways and the wrong times. Even the serious "dramactic" scenes had all the same score, it was so distracting and just weird. It's as if the music was meant for an entirely different film. It did not fit.
Such is almost the same with the rest of the filmaking. The camera jerked around so much it made your eyes blurry at times. The camera did these weird fast takes like it was being fastforwarded and it was accomanied by some weird sound effects. Maybe it was just the theater I was in, but the sound appeared to be kind of muffled. That was another issue I had. Like at times it was hard to even hear what was going on.
But listen, Nobel Son through all of this is not an awful movie. I know I may have painted the picture, but really I think this movie could appeal to some audiences. Just not so much me. I mean it was just simply OK, a little weird, and overall forgetabble.
To view this film's theatrical trailer, click this link: Nobel Son
*This is the 153rd new film I've seen and reviewed this year.
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