Review of St. Vincent (2014) by Scott J — 07 Nov 2015

A bit trite, but a great emotional journey nevertheless.

A young boy and his mother move into a new neighbourhood. Their closest neighbour is a curmudgeonly old man who likes betting on horses and the company of ladies of the night, well, one particular lady of the night. Yet the boy and the old man strike up a friendship. Maybe there's more to the old man than meets the eye...

Not a very original movie. Much of the plot seemed done before, and is reasonably predictable - many of the plot developments are signposted well in advance. Yet, it works. The mixture of comedy and drama, with engaging characters and character depth makes up for the reasonably basic plot.

This, and the performances.

Bill Murray is great in the lead role - a perfect balance of humour, cynicism, street smartness and compassion. Jaeden Lieberher puts in a solid performance as the boy. Melissa McCarthy puts in a good performance as the mother. Surprisingly so - she usually acts in very silly, juvenile comedies. She may have a future in drama.

However, the most surprising performance, and positively so, comes from Naomi Watts. She usually stars as irritating, pretentious characters in dull artsy films. Here she is wonderful as a pregnant Russian prostitute. Just about every line of hers is pure comedy gold. A very entertaining role, and one gets the feeling she enjoyed it, as it must have been a great relief from the intense, expression-and-word-perfect roles she usually plays.

Great movie.