Stuck in a no man’s land between family drama, caper flick and acerbic comedy, Nobel Son stars Alan Rickman as Nobel Prize nominated Professor Eli Michaelson. When his son, Barkley (Bryan Greenberg, “October Road”), is kidnapped on the eve of his acceptance of the award, he is forced to pay $2 million in his prize winnings as ransom while stumbling into a swirling plot of deception and retribution.

Directed and edited by Randall Miller, the film features a number of actors from his far superior, actually lucid film Bottle Shock including Rickman, who delivers one of his signature, scenery-chewing, I’m-so-bad-I’m-good performances, and Bill Pullman as Detective Max Mariner, a mumbling, extraneous police investigator shoehorned into an already incoherent plot. Mary Steenburgen, Shawn Hatosy and Eliza Dushku round out the cast of this over-amped, under-conceived melee.

Grade: D

Nobel Son releases in theaters Dec. 5.