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Have you ever randomly picked a vacation destination
by spinning a globe with your eyes closed? The plot of “Nobel
Son” works in much the same way; it spins and spins its
tangled web and can end up here or there or anywhere. It’s
all at once a brutal dark comedy and an engrossing mystery,
and it teases both the characters and the audience along
with a series of deceptions and revelations and twists.
***
This is no small task considering the demented nature
of the main character’s PhD thesis, which somehow forms
a connection between cannibalism and a Game Boy system;
it acts as a sort of thematic umbrella, under which lies
a twisted story of human nature, specifically in matters
of making sure certain people get what they deserve. ***
Yes, I’m describing a very broad concept, and I admit
that it doesn’t do an adequate job explaining what this
movie is about. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t think
I can give you an in-depth plot synopsis, partly because
the details are difficult to sort out, but mostly because
a description might spoil a number of pivotal moments. ***
I can, however, give you a vague idea. Let’s begin with
Eli Michaelson (Alan Rickman), who may in fact be one of
the meanest, most unlikable characters of any film this
decade. He’s a Chemistry teacher with an ego that sprawls
out even farther than the Periodic Table of Elements. He
thinks he’s better than his colleagues. He isn’t kind to
his wife, a forensic psychologist named Sarah (Mary Steenburgen);
truth be told, he cheats on her at every possible opportunity.
He certainly can’t cut his son a break, an eager doctorate
student named Barkley (Bryan Greenberg). ***
One day, Eli learns that he’s won the Nobel Prize.
Unfortunately, Barkley is kidnapped on the day of his father’s
flight to Sweden. Naturally, his father doesn’t believe
that he’s been kidnapped when the kidnapper, an insane car
junkie named Thaddeus James (Shawn Hatosy), allows him to
speak on the phone. But as Eli and Sarah are escorted back
to their hotel after the ceremony, they open a package and
discover a severed human thumb. That’s when Thaddeus names
his terms: $2 million in exchange for Barkley’s life. ***
To describe any more of the plot would be pointless.
Needless to say, nothing is what it seems, and just about
everyone has something to hide. Take Sarah, whose training
allows her to deconstruct things so thoroughly that it’s
virtually impossible to get anything past her. She remains
mostly passive about her husband’s appalling behavior throughout
most of the film, although there’s a sense that she knows
him better than he knows himself. ***
There’s a quiet but interesting moment between her and
Max Mariner (Bill Pullman), the detective assigned to Barkley’s
case; she hopes that the severed thumb belongs to her son,
because if it doesn’t, that means the kidnapper is dangerously
methodical. ***
As for Mariner, he seems to know that something about
Barkley’s situation isn’t quite right. He goes from place
to place, interviewing everyone who might know something.
One of these people is the next-door neighbor, Gastner (Danny
DeVito), a recovering obsessive-compulsive. ***
Another person is City Hall (Eliza Dushku), who Barkley
met at a poetry reading at the local bookstore. I honestly
don’t know what to make of her, and her name is certainly
of no help. Then again, given the nature of the plot, one
may not have to understand her. One look at her apartment
is enough to unsettle even the darkest of minds. She’s an
artist with a lot of baggage, all of which carries over
into her work. Paintings cover a lot of wall space, and
they’re all nothing more than muddy smears of color. ***
And then there’s Thaddeus. Why on earth would he kidnap
the son of a Nobel Prize winner? All I can say is that he
has his reasons. When we first meet him, everything is clear-cut
in his mind; he has a plan, and he intends to follow it
to a tee. ***
But then he kidnaps Barkley, and almost immediately,
nothing is clear-cut anymore. Plans change. New lies are
concocted. Alliances are formed and then broken. As is the
case with City Hall, trying to understand Thaddeus is most
likely unnecessary. Even though he explains himself, what
motivates him is not as important as what he does. ***
I’m now realizing that this review has been annoyingly
vague. But unless you want me to spoil the whole thing,
I don’t have much of a choice. Not that it matters a great
deal; the mystery in this film is so bizarre and meandering
that it’s really nothing more than a distortion of someone’s
perception. Part of the fun was not knowing which direction
the plot would go in, which is to say that I was continuously
surprised all throughout. ***
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