Swift shot: Excellent script, quick dialog and compelling characters, though flawed in the muddling of perhaps too many compelling characters. Focusing around the kidnapping of a professor’s son who has just won the Nobel prize. Sexy, stylized acting, with an edged delivery from most of the players. This one will keep you interested and focused, and you don’t have to be a rocket-scientist to appreciate any of the subtle, and not so subtle ironies.
Starting off with a brutal attack at an ATM, Director Randall Miller sets the pace for violence and the casual application of that violence as an amped-up assault on the senses. Violence in Nobel Son is matter-of-fact and applied with a lackadaisical emptiness, which makes the violence more authentic.
With a few incredibly talented old-school actors (Alan Rickman, Danny DeVito, Bill Pullman, Mary Steenburgen) peppered in with some up and coming, can hold their own, talent (Bryan Greenberg, Shawn Hatosy, Eliza Dushku) – you get a nice ebb and flow with the performances. Nothing is really over the top, but nothing is terrible either – so it makes the characters feel believable, even though their actions are anything but! I would have eliminated one character altogether, George Gastner (Danny Devito) the nosy, OCD tenant of Professor Michaelson who does hold an important piece to the puzzle – but it wasn’t so important that they couldn’t have just used his name, the direct exposition felt tacked-on and necessary to fill a role for DeVito.
This film should be watched with a few friends who like the whodunits, and the kinda people that will constantly interject their two cents throughout – only to look foolish in the end. I used to be one of those people, but movies like Nobel Son have quite effectively shut me up . . . just sit back and enjoy this one, and if you hate it, at least it has Eliza Dushku.
