Randall Miller's
obnoxious new thriller Nobel Son is a cringe-inducing throwback to the bad
old days of the mid-'90s, when video-store shelves overflowed with gleefully
profane, self-consciously hip, proudly transgressive thrillers that worshipped
at the Church Of Quentin Tarantino, yet were blessed with none of their deity's
gifts, and all of his weaknesses. Filled with freeze-frames and set to a
deafening techno score, the film isn't populated by human beings, but by
random, half-assed assemblages of writerly quirks. For example, Danny DeVito's
character is an ex-mental patient defined entirely by his obsessive-compulsive
disorder; those who don't find OCD inherently hilarious are in for a long haul.
Bryan Greenberg,
the giant slab of beefcake from Prime and HBO's Unscripted, stars as a grad
student who struggles to get by while his hotshot professor dad Alan Rickman
cheats his way to the Nobel Prize in chemistry. When Rickman wins the big
award, a shadowy figure from his past (Shawn Hatosy) kidnaps Greenberg and
demands a $2 million ransom. Unlikely alliances ensue as seemingly everyone in
Rickman's life plots and schemes to get their grubby little hands on his
ill-gotten loot.
As a malevolent
peacock of an academic who luxuriates in his own misanthropy, Rickman tears
into the dialogue he's saddled with as if it were the finest filet mignon, but
he becomes less and less of a presence as the film progresses. Miller's
screenplay, co-written and overwritten with Jody Savin, calls attention to
itself at every turn. In the most egregious instance, a reporter covering
Greenberg's abduction, apparently for the Fancy Words News Network, describes it
as an "iniquitous kidnapping," as opposed to the many humanitarian kidnappings
that dominate the evening news. Meanwhile, DeVito and Bill Pullman's supporting
roles inspire rosy nostalgia for Ruthless People, a black comedy
that handled similar subject matter with more wit and less smug
self-satisfaction. Nobel Son sadistically resurrects the Tarantino
knockoff—an unloved, foul-mouthed little bastard of a subgenre that
should now go away forever.