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Nobel Son
User Score
7.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 23 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 23
  3. Negative: 3 out of 23

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  1. JayH.
    Mar 7, 2009
    5
    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.
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  2. JackP.
    Jan 30, 2009
    8
    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 said yes
  3. ChadS.
    Dec 12, 2008
    4
    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 said yes
  4. GeorgeA.
    Dec 16, 2008
    10
    Its deliberately "over-the-top"....in this light it is entertaining! Great car/mall action!
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
28 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 18
  3. Negative: 12 out of 18
  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Ronnie Scheib
    60
    Uneven but enjoyably titillating black comedy should elate Rickman fans while pleasing aficionados of extra-flakey caper flicks.
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  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Tim Grierson
    20
    Director and co-writer Randall Miller is so ill at ease with the basic building blocks of the genre that Nobel Son quickly announces itself as one of those misbegotten clunkers where almost every creative decision isn't just wrong but tone-deaf.
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  3. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    25
    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.
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