Nobel Son (2007)

This film has some plot trick that seem hardly understandable to some. The only one problem is that how could the crazy son predict, that the father will win a Nobel prize, or how could he plot the kidnapping (which is a good plot) within the interval between naming the Nobel laureate and actually presenting the prize. OK, he was spying on the family for long time, and the single molecular spectroscopy was a Nobel-worth idea, bu no one can ever guess, when such a work gets the actual prize (if it gets at all).All the other strange things, like the suffering wife (who does not actually seem suffering beside her husband, until their son is kidnapped, these egoistic guys can be very magnetic in their ways), the changing of the less crazy son while being kidnapped (the more crazy son manages to turn him against the already not much liked father by showing some convincing and less convincing proofs of the father's evilness (by the way, the handwritings are the less convincing facts, they can easily be made up)), the lack of make up after the kidnapping (realistic), or the evil son"s killing the neighbour (1. convincing the police, that the neighbour was the kidnapper, 2. if this does not come in, convincing the police that the less crazy son was his own kidnapper + getting the place above the garage, which is the first step for getting his place in his father's heart and wiping the other son out of it totally), etc. can be easily followed, if wanted. It seems that there were mostly two kinds of reviewers, those who liked the music and wanted to understand, and those, who didn't. Anyway, for having such extreme opinions, it must be a fairly good film.It is clear, that the writers don't understand much in chemistry (in university professor level, no one would be so satisfied with a used car dealer, who knows, what size the molecules are, that they would invite him to their lab), but the plot and the filming is disturbing enough to be worth watching. The ending is not well developed, it is true.The reference to cannibalism is beautiful, it is true, that such a man (all kinds of genies, and this professor was a kind of genius, even is not in single molecule spectroscopy) can "eat" his family alive, and at the end he is eaten alive by his suppressed son, when the reference returns.

This wasn't all bad, but it didn't seem to know where it was going. First of all the lousy music. This was intrusive, too loud and in places even drowned out the dialogue. I found myself reaching for the remote to lower it every time the nutter came on. He was accompanied by crazy music to let us know he was crazy. Then you had to turn the sound up again to catch the next bit of dialogue. The music was terrible, and sounded as if it was added at the last minute to change the direction of the movie in post edit. Then I realised what had happened. The original comedy movie had been made into a 'dark comedy' after shooting was over. The cannibalism, mutilation, kidnapping, murders and beatings were a little too much for the review audiences, so it had to become a thriller. The Woody Allen style poetry group and the presence of so many comedy actors, Rickman, Danson, Steenburgen, De Vito surely meant that this began as a comedy, but someone (one of the 5 producers ? ) decided to change tack. Was De Vito originally meant to be more enhanced role and he was cut down to practically a cameo ? Why was Danson given only a few cutting lines as the University Dean ? Given Benny Hill style music, or even a decent rock score, but hey they have to be paid for, the whole film would have been better. Why did this go straight to DVD here in the UK, and then be given away in a newspaper ? I think a fine cast was let down here by a too many cooks effect and a corporate writing and editing debacle.

The only reason I grade this movie with a 5 are Eliza Dushku's thonged buttocks in one scene. Other than that it was a complete fail on all levels. Imagine a planned con of the type you see in Ocean's Eleven, with the same silly music and the Mini Cooper cars taken from another heist movie I don't remember the name of, but all related to the dysfunctional family of a Nobel laureate. It might still be nice if it weren't for all the murders and mutilations, all done on the same silly music. And if that weren't enough, the plot has so many holes it went fractal!What were Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman (both actors that I respect a lot) doing in a piece of ... film like this? The only decent thing in this movie was the cast. Bottom line: stay away! It's so averagely bad that it doesn't even count as a movie. It's like one of those uninspired cleaning solution commercials.

Although funny at times, I could not get myself to care about a character or a plot development. Apparently the mistreated son is our hero, though he certainly does not seem deserving of praise or reward. So obviously and early do we understand Dad is to receive his come-up-pence that we really don't care when it happens. Most annoying was evil son's unexplained transformation from a terror to a wimp, or mom's change into a vindictive spouse. Bill Pullman appears confused about his role, playing it as over-the-top corny. Absolutely awful ending. Without the occasional laugh, would've been a complete bomb. With tone and script changes, this could've been much better.