Movie Review: Nobel Son

Between the time I bought my ticket and actually entered the theater, I had the following exchange with no fewer than four people (possibly more, I lost count):

"What are you seeing?"

"Nobel Son"

"What?"

"Nobel Son"

"We have that?"

"Yup, just opened this weekend."

"Hm, never heard of it."

"Not many people have."

"What's it about?"

"Not sure, but it has Alan Rickman and Eliza Dushku. That's enough for me."

That is pretty close to an accurate transcript of what went down. I had seen the trailer once, but I wasn't sure what, exactly, it was. I thought it was a comedy, a thought shared by one of the theater managers. The problem — not really, but you understand — was that it was described alternately as a thriller and a psychological thriller. Weird that I thought it was more of a comedy, but whatever... I was willing to give it a shot. I went into the empty theater, with only two more audience members to arrive after me, and sat down with my popcorn (doubling as dinner, quite healthy) to prepare for the great unknown that was before me.

The movie played, the movie ended, and the three of us wandered out into the night. Not much conversation between the couple as they hurried to the exit, while I walked down the long hallway contemplating what I had seen. Well, contemplating may be a bit too strong a word; needless to say I was thinking about what just went down and I was coming up blank. In other words, the movie, while slightly stylish, did not do much for me. I actually felt bored during stretches despite the audio/visual flourishes that zipped us between scenes.

I hesitate to go too deeply into plot description, as it does jump around a bit and force you to put together the pieces. It strikes me as a low-rent version of what Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie do. I am reminded of Ritchie's RocknRolla, which had a rather mundane plot but was put together in a deliciously visual manner making it a movie that may not have had much under the surface, but was visually arresting. In a similar way, Nobel Son has the visual flourishes but it lacks the intelligence with which to pull it all together. The moderately comic crime feature wants to make you feel it is more clever than it really is, mistaking a convoluted plot labyrinth for intelligence.

Article Author: Chris Beaumont

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about music and movies when he isn't indulging in them. He is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Follow: Twitter and Tumblr. Visit: Critical Outcast. …

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