☰
Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

Nobel Son

Play trailer Poster for Nobel Son R Released Dec 5, 2008 1h 50m Mystery & Thriller Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
27% Tomatometer 64 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.
Watch on Fandango at Home Buy Now

Where to Watch

Nobel Son

Nobel Son

What to Know

Critics Consensus

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

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View More (64)
Nick Schager Slant Magazine An absolutely abysmal crime flick. Rated: .5/4 Dec 5, 2008 Full Review J. R. Jones Chicago Reader 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. Dec 5, 2008 Full Review Tom Long Detroit News It's one of those films stuffed with odd characters in overblown situations. Unfortunately, you don't care about any of them. Rated: C- Dec 5, 2008 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins With its constant genre-morphing subplots, psychotic characters, and unordered narrative, it will keep audiences guessing all the way through. Rated: 6/10 Nov 28, 2020 Full Review Kevin Carr 7M Pictures The writing is hopelessly obtuse, and it seems that the writer was just trying to pull a fast one on the audience. Rated: 1.5/5 Jan 11, 2010 Full Review William Goss Cinematical Smug and glib and generally apathetic as to who gets what in the end, so long as it seems clever at the time. Dec 17, 2009 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More (343)
Mariana H Good entertaining movie. A bit hard to follow near the end, but overall worth a watch. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 06/23/24 Full Review Cristian s 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. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 09/20/23 Full Review steve d The cast (and I LOVE the cast) can not make this dark, boring and deeply unpleasant film work. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Reasonable film but a bit too confusing and complicated for me. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member It was certainly different, somewhat hard to follow. Great music from the GREAT Paul Oakenfold. Very interesting plot. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Nobel Son

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

View All

Randall Miller

Director

Alan Rickman

Eli Michaelson

Bryan Greenberg

Barkley Michaelson

Shawn Hatosy

Thaddeus James

Mary Steenburgen

Sarah Michaelson

Eliza Dushku

City Hall

More Like This

View All
Stuck 73% 54% Stuck Watchlist Baghead 79% 49% Baghead Watchlist Who Is Cletis Tout? 23% 52% Who Is Cletis Tout? Watchlist The Guard 94% 81% The Guard Watchlist Inherent Vice 73% 53% Inherent Vice Watchlist TRAILER for Inherent Vice Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Related Movie News

View All
RT on DVD: Gran Torino, Crossing Over, Nobel Son Exclusive Look Critics Consensus: Cadillac Records Rocks, Punisher Hurts
View All

Nobel Son

Nobel Son (2007) Nobel Son (2007) Nobel Son (2007) Nobel Son (2007) 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
Most Popular at Home Now