Movie Review

Nobel Son (2008)

EW's GRADE
D

Details Release Date: Dec 05, 2008; Rated: R; Length: 110 Minutes; Genres: Comedy, Crime; With: Alan Rickman

 Far from noble: Alan Rickman stars in this amateurish film Nobel Son
Far from noble: Alan Rickman stars in this amateurish film

In Nobel Son, Eli Michaelson (Alan Rickman) is a noted chemistry professsor who has just received the Nobel Prize; he's also a lecherous, ill-tempered misanthropic jerk. When the son (Bryan Greenberg) he treats like dirt gets kidnapped by a psychopath (Shawn Hatosy) who is not what he seems, the director, Randall Miller (Bottle Shock), appears to be trying to cross a bad Elmore Leonard thriller with a bad indie-festival family-angst 
 comedy. He gives us the worst of both worlds, parading each superficially clever motif — 
severed thumbs, cannibalism, the magic of Pat Benatar's lyrics — with an amateur's show-off glee. D

Originally posted Dec 03, 2008 Published in issue #1025 Dec 12, 2008 Order article reprints

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