Nobel Son (2007)

Barkley Michaelson is in a deep life rut. He's struggling to finish his PhD thesis when his father, the learned Eli Michaelson, wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Barkley and his mother, ... See full summary »

Director:

Randall Miller

Writers:

Jody Savin, Randall Miller

Stars:

Alan Rickman, Bryan Greenberg, Shawn Hatosy

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alan Rickman	...	Eli Michaelson
Bryan Greenberg	...	Barkley Michaelson
Shawn Hatosy	...	Thaddeus James
Mary Steenburgen	...	Sarah Michaelson
Bill Pullman	...	Max Mariner
Eliza Dushku	...	City Hall
Danny DeVito	...	George Gastner
Lindy Booth	...	Beth Chapman
Tracey Walter	...	Simon Ahrens
Ted Danson	...	Harvey Parrish
Ernie Hudson	...	Bill Canepa
Hal B. Klein	...	Tully's Guy
Matt Winston	...	Book Store Manager
Kirk Baily	...	Wil Cavalere
Joyce Guy	...	Eileen Moses

Storyline

Barkley Michaelson is in a deep life rut. He's struggling to finish his PhD thesis when his father, the learned Eli Michaelson, wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Barkley and his mother, Sarah, a renowned forensic psychiatrist, now have the ill-fortune of living with a man-eating monster whose philandering ways have gotten less and less discrete. As if Barkley's world is not bad enough, on the eve of his father receiving the Nobel, Barkley is kidnapped and the requested ransom is the $2,000,000 in Nobel prize money. Needless to say, Eli refuses to pay it and so starts a venomous tale of familial dysfunction, lust, betrayal and ultimately revenge. In the words of Michel De Montaigne, the 16th century philosopher: "There is more barbarity in eating a man alive than in eating him dead."

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Plot Keywords:

nobel prize | revenge | phd | thesis | ransom | 

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Taglines:

Keep your eyes on the prize.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some violent gruesome images, language and sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 December 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Le prix de la rançon

Filming Locations:

City of Industry, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$333,912 (USA) (5 December 2008)

Gross:

$333,912 (USA) (5 December 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eli's Son Production, Gimme Five Films, Prama

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

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.

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Goofs

During Barkley and City's love scene, a patch covering her right nipple is briefly visible.

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Quotes

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

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Connections

References Scarface (1932)

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Soundtracks

"1234 (get up high)"
Written & Performed by Rekelectrik
Courtesy of Rekelectrik Productions

User Reviews

Nobel Son Movie Review from The Massie Twins

Nobel Son is not an easy film to foretell, and with its constant genre-morphing subplots, psychotic characters and unordered narrative, it will keep you guessing all the way through. This escape from convention is not always a good thing – the first half hour of the film tries the patience and is so disjointed and seemingly nongermane that it's impossible to predict the relationships of the bizarre events. Once you've made it to the second act, pieces start to fall into place and realizations are hinted upon, but it doesn't stop there. More twists, more complexities and one too many unlikely coincidences might make you think twice before feeling satisfied by this suspenseful drama/dark comedy/horror/mystery thriller.

The opening scene consists of an alarmingly brutal thumb-severing bit of violence that perfectly paves the way for the unpredictable and mind-boggling adventure that follows. Eli Michaelson (Alan Rickman, in a wonderfully despicable role that he continually excels at) has just been announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize for his stellar work in chemistry. He's egotistical, eccentric, uncaring and obnoxious, and has been handing out higher grades in exchange for sex with his young female students. His son Barkley (Bryan Greenberg) is struggling with his PhD thesis on cannibalism (his opening line of narration quotes Michel De Montaigne, a 16th century philosopher: "There is more barbarity in eating a man alive than in eating him dead."). He also struggles with an awkward romance with City Hall (Eliza Dushku), a morbid poet and artist with her own bountiful measure of oddness.

Eli's wife Sarah (Mary Steenburgen) is a renowned forensic psychiatrist who is fancied by Max Mariner (Bill Pullman), a somewhat crafty detective. On the morning of the family's trip to Sweden to attend the Nobel Prize party, Barkley is kidnapped and held for a $2 million ransom; the money awarded to Eli. From here, backstabbing, jealousy, lust and greed collide in nonstop twists and turns, proving that once again nothing is what it seems.

Every character in Nobel Son is devious, shrewd, freakish, obsessive compulsive or morally flawed (most often all of those combined) making it difficult to side with any of the numerous antiheros. The first plot surprise is unique and smart, but then the filmmakers try too hard and it becomes unnecessarily convoluted. This is where the unexpected genre confusion comes into play, at times heading down the path of taut mystery thriller, always mixing in dark, subtle humor (and blatant grossness with poetry reading from "Death By Drain-O" and verses involving bathing in excrement), and eventually borrowing from films like David Fincher's Seven, Body Heat, Wild Things and even Mission: Impossible.

Nobel Son is definitely a shock to the system, an unconventional film that reminds us of the chaos of those rare movies that breathe life into the most peculiar characters and situations. It's not perfect and its originality only comes from the amount of time that has passed since a movie like this was presented, but it's certainly worth a try.

• Mike Massie