Review of St. Vincent (2014) by Dave M — 07 Sep 2015

Saints and sinners. Religious connotations aside, I think each of us fits the broad definitions of those words at different times and different moments in our lives. We all like to be thought of more as the former than the latter, but the truth is each of our lives is a mixed bag. In the final analysis, the perceptions that other people form have more to do with their individual observations and interpretations and their personal experiences with us than any objective measure. That's the theme of "St. Vincent" (R, 1:42).

Bill Murray is Vincent McKenna, a selfish, grouchy loaner who lives alone in a lower middle class section of New York City. Maggie Bronstein (Melissa McCarthy) and her 12-year-old son, Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher) are unlucky enough to move in next door to Vin (as his few friends call him). Maggie's going through a contentious divorce and works long hours as a nurse to pay for her son's Catholic school tuition (where the priest who teaches him is played by Chris O'Dowd). Oliver needs someone to watch him after school and he also needs a friend. Vin reluctantly becomes both. Although the two of them come to like each other (and even need each other), being around Vin's hedonistic lifestyle (including associating with Naomi Watts' Russian prostitute) isn't exactly what the doctor, or, in this case, the nurse, ordered.

It would be easy for Maggie, her son and everyone else who knows Vin to write him off as just a big jerk, but there's more to Vin than meets the eye. No, he doesn't have a heart of gold, and he is deeply flawed, but getting to know Vin better means understanding him better, if not liking him. I'll not say much more, because the fun (and emotional impact) in this movie comes from discovering who Vin really is and how he behaves when no one else is looking. The last few scenes are likely to bring a tear to your eye, if not for the sake of the character in the movie, then because you, like the rest of us, want to be seen as others come to see Vin.

This movie is billed as a comedy, but there's actually very little here to make the audience laugh. Murray and McCarthy both largely dispense with the manic energy and sarcasm usually associated with their characters. The humor in this film is more in the category of amusing than laugh-out-loud funny. The entertainment value in "St. Vincent" comes mostly from the story's drama and the highly relatable desire to be seen by others as the whole package, with our positive and negative attributes and actions weighed equally fairly. The problem with this movie is that most of the various characters' actions lack real significance (positive or negative) and the film, much like it's main character, is not really any better than the sum of its parts. I'd give "St. Vincent" a "B", with a mild recommendation. Catch it on DVD.