‘Nobel Son’ is at least different

So you take an academic story about an arrogant, lecherous professor who wins the Nobel Prize; make him even more insufferable; combine it with daddy issues, a violent kidnapping caper and the occasional nod to, um, cannibalism; and what have you got?

A seriously weird mix. Or “Nobel Son.”

Both answers are correct.

While director Randall Miller’s film is sometimes too self-consciously odd for its own good (he also co-wrote the screenplay), the film is still at times rollicking good fun, with Alan Rickman having a ball offending everyone within earshot as the self-centered, brilliant Eli Michaelson.

Come for that, stay for the nicely creeped-out performance by Shawn Hatosy as Thaddeus James, the brilliant-but-troubled kidnapper.

Then there is Bryan Greenberg as the brilliant-but-troubled kidnap victim, Barkley Michaelson (a lot of that brilliant-but-troubled business going around). Barkley is Eli’s son, a doctoral student working on a thesis about cannibalism. He’s dirt poor (his father has him on a restrictive allowance), he’s resentful but he loves his mom, Sarah (Mary Steenburgen).

There’s also flaky artist City Hall (Eliza Dushku) – not her real name – scruffy detective (and friend of the family) Max Mariner (Bill Pullman) and, what the heck, recovering obsessive-compulsive patient Gastner (Danny DeVito), who hangs around the margins.

A lot of characters, in other words, all of them quirky, each in his or her own way. The story doesn’t really add up, nor does its resolution. But it’s fun getting there.

When Eli wins his Nobel, he wants to take his wife and son to the ceremony. He’s hardly surprised when Barkley doesn’t show up for the flight; he assumes a position of righteous anger, a call from Thaddeus demanding ransom notwithstanding. Eventually he gets graphic proof, sort of, but that hardly simplifies things.

Soon loyalties are crisscrossed more than once. There are twists, turns and personality changes. It’s not all that believable, particularly a late-in-the-game role reversal that feels too rushed.

And while Greenberg is fine as Barkley, he’s not nearly as effective as Rickman (no surprise there) or Hatosy (mild surprise). You don’t like either one of them, particularly, but their performances are so entertaining that you want to see as much of them as possible.

Perhaps “Nobel Son’s” greatest accomplishment is attempting to blend so many genres, and not failing completely. To say that the journey is the reward probably puts a little too fine a face on it.

But it’s fun to see a non-academic take on the academic film, to see a clever twist on a kidnapping caper, to see a group of talented actors, here in the serious season of movie-going, having so much fun.

Is “Nobel Son” a great movie? Hardly. Say this: It’s different.

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