Review of St. Vincent (2014) by J Corey S — 10 May 2015

This is a cheesy, sentimental, rather obviously manipulative movie, but it works. I could see a lot of it coming a mile away, and yet I still enjoyed it anyway, mostly because Bill Murray is just so darn good. This is a fairly funny, sweet little film that most people would rather enjoy.

The film follows Vincent (Murray), a grumpy, hard-drinking old recluse who starts looking after his 12-year-old neighbor (Jaeden Lieberher) after school when the boy's single mother (Melissa McCarthy) can't be home. At first, obviously, Vincent seems like the worst possible babysitter, taking the kid to bars and the racetrack, but eventually the kid learns the deeper truths of Vincent's life.

None of this is revolutionary, and the manipulative heart-string pulling becomes especially obvious towards the end of the film. Nevertheless, I would say the film does a good job of earning its sentimentality along the way, largely because of how well Murray makes his character feel real. Lieberher is quite excellent for such a young actor, and McCarthy does fine in a totally straight role. Naomi Watts also turns up as a Russian prostitute, whom you would think would be played for the cheapest sort of laughs, but isn't really. This role seems to be halfway between the earlier broad comedy roles Murray became known for (in films like Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, and Stripes) and the more melancholy, quirky roles he's taken ever since he met Wes Anderson (virtually all of Anderson's movies, Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers). It's a comedic, straightforward role, but Murray brings enough of that sadness to make it not feel one-note or fake. Overall, I wouldn't say this is Murray's best movie by any stretch, but it's well worth checking out for anyone who's enjoyed his work before.