Nobel Son

Name: Nobel Son
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Crime
Released: December 5, 2008
Duration: 110 min
Rating: 28
Cast: Alan Rickman, Bryan Greenberg, Shawn Hatosy

2008

METASCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Ratings

See All

7.3

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

7.3	Your Score
7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Nobel Son

Now Playing: Nobel Son

Movie Details & Credits

Freestyle Releasing | Release Date: December 5, 2008 | R

Starring: Alan Rickman, Bryan Greenberg, Shawn Hatosy

Summary: A son struggles to finish his thesis when his father wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry, making life all the more difficult for him and his mother, a well-known forensic. (Freestyle Releasing)

Director: Randall Miller

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 110 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Roger Ebert

A mercilessly convoluted version of a Twister, that genre in which the plot whacks us as if it's taking batting practice. I will not hint at anything that happens. I will simply observe that it's all entertaining. Read full review

Ronnie Scheib

Uneven but enjoyably titillating black comedy should elate Rickman fans while pleasing aficionados of extra-flakey caper flicks. Read full review

Wesley Morris

Guy Ritchie made a name for himself with scuzz, but even his shtick has exceeded its sell-by date. Nobel Son goes further, crossing the contortions of "The Usual Suspects" with the shallowness of certain intellectual family melodramas. Read full review

Liam Lacey

The movie is so relentlessly self-congratulatory, you can't help becoming thoroughly sick of it. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

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. Read full review

Kyle Smith

Rickman has fun playing a lecherous old bastard of a professor in Nobel Son, a pulpy would-be comic thriller, but the movie doesn't deserve him. Read full review

Nathan Rabin

Nobel Son sadistically resurrects the Tarantino knockoff--an unloved, foul-mouthed little bastard of a subgenre that should now go away forever. Read full review

SEE ALL 18 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

GeorgeA.

Dec 16, 2008

Its deliberately "over-the-top"....in this light it is entertaining! Great car/mall action!

0 of 0 users found this helpful

JackP.

Jan 30, 2009

It is not a perfect film, although it is an excellent, and (pun intended) nobel one. The cast is terrific, and the story is very good. It never slows down for anything, and delightfully makes room for both comedy and thriller.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

Meth-dude

Feb 11, 2017

The acting was pretty good, the premise was interesting and the movie was entertaining. Even if it was unbelievable at times, it's still a pretty good movie.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

JayH.

Mar 7, 2009

Very uneven film, but it misses the mark overall. There were just too many slow patches, and I just could not get into the film, even after several attempts to start it over from the beginning. Mary Steenburgen is great though.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

ChadS.

Dec 12, 2008

There's an intruder in the house. Unless he's psychic, the intruder should be waiting outside his girlfriend's place. How does he know that Barkley(Brian Greenberg) has the instincts of a twelve-year-old boy and returns home? Since the Nobel Prize laureate's son is late There's an intruder in the house. Unless he's psychic, the intruder should be waiting outside his girlfriend's place. How does he know that Barkley(Brian Greenberg) has the instincts of a twelve-year-old boy and returns home? Since the Nobel Prize laureate's son is late for his ride to the airport, it's a bit of a plot contrivance that this cannibal expert doesn't meet up with mom and dad at the airline terminal, hopefully before they board the plane and go to Sweden without him. Evidently, the screenwriter wanted Brian to be kidnapped at home, so he goes home, instead of using a cellular phone to find out where they are. So Brian is kidnapped, while kidnapped, he learns that his father(Alan Rickman) is a bigger d*** than he previously thought. And overreacts; Barkley joins forces with Thaddeus(Shawn Hatosy) and collects half of the ransom money(shades of Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"). Unlike the two brothers in the Lumet film, however, Brian is an academic, not a "loser" like the Ethan Hawke and Phillip Seymour Hoffman characters; his foray in crime, again, seems like a plot contrivance, because it's psychologically unmotivated. And then there's the drop-off point for the ransom money, a mall of all places, teeming with people, a place where so many things could go wrong. The scheme with the two cars took a whole lot of panache to pull off, but it's hopelessly convoluted, bordering on the nonsensical. "Nobel Son" is a series of plot twists interspersed with an unconvincing family drama. If your main character is writing his master's thesis on cannibalism, and he doesn't eat his father in the end: Why bother?… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

CameraBounceGod

May 4, 2018

Having seen this at 26 years its refreshing to see a movie that seems to have been made for almost no reason or for fun...that being said its really just something that you might pop in for no reason to go to sleep. The plot is kindof boring but the soundtrack and acting seem ahead of itsHaving seen this at 26 years its refreshing to see a movie that seems to have been made for almost no reason or for fun...that being said its really just something that you might pop in for no reason to go to sleep. The plot is kindof boring but the soundtrack and acting seem ahead of its time. fun the first time but unrealistic after that. Devito is should have had more lines as always lol… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

SEE ALL 6 REVIEWS