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Nobel Son

Play trailer Poster for Nobel Son R 2008 1h 50m Mystery & Thriller Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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25% Tomatometer 63 Reviews 44% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Soon after his insufferably arrogant father (Alan Rickman) wins the Nobel Prize for chemistry, Barkley Michaelson (Bryan Greenberg) is kidnapped by Thaddeus James (Shawn Hatosy), a young genius who claims to be Barkley's illegitimate half-brother. Motivated not so much by money as revenge, Thaddeus tries to convince Barkley to help him carry out a multimillion-dollar extortion plot against their patriarch.
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Nobel Son

Nobel Son

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Critics Consensus

Despite the best efforts of a strong cast, Nobel Son is over-plotted and self-consciously odd.

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Critics Reviews

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Nick Schager Slant Magazine 12/05/2008
.5/4
An absolutely abysmal crime flick. Go to Full Review J. R. Jones Chicago Reader 12/05/2008
The plot twists are mostly predicated on the characters' improbably shifting loyalties, the sort of thing you can get away with only when the people in your movie are drained of all compassion. Go to Full Review Tom Long Detroit News 12/05/2008
C-
It's one of those films stuffed with odd characters in overblown situations. Unfortunately, you don't care about any of them. Go to Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins 11/28/2020
6/10
With its constant genre-morphing subplots, psychotic characters, and unordered narrative, it will keep audiences guessing all the way through. Go to Full Review Kevin Carr 7M Pictures 01/11/2010
1.5/5
The writing is hopelessly obtuse, and it seems that the writer was just trying to pull a fast one on the audience. Go to Full Review William Goss Cinematical 12/17/2009
Smug and glib and generally apathetic as to who gets what in the end, so long as it seems clever at the time. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Cristian s @cristiansj 09/20/2023 Básicamente la película es un exceso de giros argumentales. Cumple porque nunca se sabe que va a pasar a continuación pero por momentos esos giros son tan absurdos y confusos que terminan arruinando una buena idea muy mal aplicada. See more steve d @RT35616104 06/24/2020 The cast (and I LOVE the cast) can not make this dark, boring and deeply unpleasant film work. See more 07/08/2017 Reasonable film but a bit too confusing and complicated for me. See more 10/15/2015 Only giving it a star because of Greenburg's performance. It's nothing spectacular, but holds up, despite this being a horrible film. Rickman did okay, but I feel like he only worked on this movie to pay for his retirement or something. This movie tries to be suspenseful, funny, serious, and...God, I don't even know what else. But, it tries to be so many things that it made it confusing for me whether to laugh at something or stare blankly. I remember the first minute or so being suspenseful and giving me the impression that this was going to be an awesome cop and robber movie. But, no, we get a confusing plot, characters, and actors that sounded really bored every time they spoke. I'm not kidding, they sounded really dull and boring. Breaks my heart to see this on Rickman's list of movies he's worked on because this was HORRIBLE. See more 08/16/2014 It was certainly different, somewhat hard to follow. Great music from the GREAT Paul Oakenfold. Very interesting plot. See more 09/30/2013 Talk about revenge. I would have given it 3 stars if it had been a little cleaner. See more Read all reviews
Nobel Son

My Rating

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Cast & Crew

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Randall Miller

Director

Alan Rickman

Eli Michaelson

Bryan Greenberg

Barkley Michaelson

Shawn Hatosy

Thaddeus James

Mary Steenburgen

Sarah Michaelson

Eliza Dushku

City Hall

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Nobel Son

Nobel Son (2007) Nobel Son (2007) Alan Rickman as Eli Michaelson and Ted Danson as Harvey Parrish in "Nobel Son." View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis Soon after his insufferably arrogant father (Alan Rickman) wins the Nobel Prize for chemistry, Barkley Michaelson (Bryan Greenberg) is kidnapped by Thaddeus James (Shawn Hatosy), a young genius who claims to be Barkley's illegitimate half-brother. Motivated not so much by money as revenge, Thaddeus tries to convince Barkley to help him carry out a multimillion-dollar extortion plot against their patriarch.
Director
Randall Miller
Producer
Randall Miller, Jody Savin
Screenwriter
Jody Savin, Randall Miller
Distributor
Freestyle Releasing
Production Co
Unclaimed Freight
Rating
R (Violent Images|Sexuality|Language)
Genre
Mystery & Thriller, Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 5, 2008, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 18, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA)
$333.9K
Runtime
1h 50m