We saw St Vincent tonight and, for a “feel good” movie, it managed to make a few scratches in my hard coat of cynicism about this genre. In this flick, Bill Murray is Vincent, a coarse, hard drinking, chain smoking, foul language sort of guy who lives in a dump of a house in Brooklyn. His life changes, however, when Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher), a wimpy, skinny, too-verbal kid moves in next door with his mother Maggie (Melissa McCarthy). She is a single, divorced mom, working too hard and needs someone to look after Oliver, who, in the kid world is a sort of potted plant (a victim in gym class), during the after school hours, when she is working. God knows, no parent in her right senses would think of leaving her son with this sotted, irresponsible guy, but she’s desperate.
Vincent takes Oliver to sleazy bars, to horse races where he feeds his gambling habit, and introduces Oliver to his special friend Daka, a “lady of the night” and tries to stay away from a dangerous loan shark Zucko (Terrance Howard), none of which endears Oliver to his Catholic school, especially when Oliver starts to learn from Vincent.
None of this seems like a good thing for a 10 year old, but, it seems to be something that Oliver really needs, as he begins to emerge as a person under the corrupting influence of Vincent. Surprises come, however, when we find that Vincent has another side to his life, one far more nurturing than the creepy, old guy he seems to be. Sadly, he is married to a woman that is suffering from dementia and he is conning the nursing home into keeping her. Between his nursing home debts and his loan shark debts, the world is closing in on Vincent, who is just too burned out to do much. To make things worse, Oliver’s cheating father has decided to pursue custody and then, Oliver has a stroke.
Why does Vincent deserve to be a saint? I don’t do a spoiler here, but you are probably sincerely hoping for a satisfactory resolution to all this angst and you must might get one, otherwise, it wouldn’t be a Feel Good movie. As these sort of movies go, this is really quite good. Bill Murray is excellent and completely shameless in his character. Jaeden Lieberher is amazingly good as Oliver, a role which requires a lot of depth for a kid his age. Vincent’s “girlfriend”, played by Naomi Watts, is a fine character, the proverbial prostitute with a heart of gold. I have not seen Melissa McCarthy in a dramatic role before and have gotten tired of her comedic character, but she does believably well as the overwhelmed mother. This movie is somewhat of a surprise gem, definitely an actor’s movie, with no action, FX and little Saturday Night Popcorn appeal, but I enjoyed it.
