When the brilliant but insufferable Nobel laureate Alan Rickman is too self-absorbed to attend his own award ceremony, his neglected family begins to unravel. His son, Barkley (Bryan Greenberg), a listless graduate student, becomes the target of a brutal kidnapping that his egotistical father initially refuses to pay for. As a bizarre ransom demand sets off a chaotic chain of events, Barkley finds himself entangled with a mysterious woman (Eliza Dushku) and at the center of a darkly comedic plot involving a vengeful stranger (Shawn Hatosy). This sharp-edged comedy thriller, directed by Randall Miller, weaves together a dysfunctional family led by Mary Steenburgen and a cast of eccentric characters including a persistent detective (Bill Pullman) and a quirky colleague (Danny DeVito). As motives blur and loyalties shift, the search for truth becomes a twisted game of intellect and deception where nothing is as academic as it seems.