St. Vincent lets Bill Murray be Bill Murray, and that is a very good thing
MOVIE REVIEW: St. Vincent is a delightfully down-in-the-mouth feel good affair dominated by the king of misanthropic mirth himself, Bill Murray.
Leigh Paatsch
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ST. VINCENT [M] — Film of the week
Rating: 3.5/5
Director: Theodore Melfi (Winding Roads)
Starring: Bill Murray,Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O’Dowd, Jaeden Lieberher.
“Hardly a saint, but his sinning isn’t everything”
Vincent de Van Nuys is not a good listener.
If he has a catchphrase, it is this: “don’t tell me the whole story.”
So if you’ve got something to say to Vincent, you better cut to the chase. The man has better things to do.
All those pressing appointments at the racetrack, the bar and with pregnant Russian pole dancers are just the tip of his scheduling iceberg.
For Vincent de Van Nuys gets up to more with his days (and nights) that most people in his orbit will ever know.
So begins St. Vincent, a delightfully down-in-the-mouth feel-good affair dominated by a brilliant performance from the king of misanthropic mirth himself, the one and only Bill Murray.
The film immediately wins over an audience simply by allowing Murray to do as he (dis) pleases in the opening act.
The character of Vincent, a Vietnam War veteran who has let go of every last polite nicety imaginable, is tailor-made to suit Murray’s rumpled talents down to the last wrinkle.
However, later on down the storytelling track — as we come to learn there is more depth to Vincent than first suspected — Murray’s skilfully recalibrates the role so that viewers will come to see the real man behind that curmudgeonly exterior.
The trigger point for Vincent’s transformation from shameless wastrel to peerless role model occurs with some new arrivals next-door to his Brooklyn crash-pad.
Newly single mother Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) is working ungodly hours at a local hospital. The poor woman is so snowed under, she hasn’t even considered who will look after her only child after school each day.
Somehow, a permanently cash-strapped Vincent lands the job of keeping a bloodshot eye on 12-year-old Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher).
What Maggie does not know — and Oliver is about to learn — is that Vincent won’t be dealing in anything resembling conventional childcare.
Instead, the kid is given a crash course in how to live both under the radar and above your means from one day to the next.
It all turns out to be one never-ending adventure for Oliver, who quickly goes from sheltered to self-reliant under Vincent’s tatty tutelage.
Don’t judge a book by its cover. What a touching story. I cried. Absolutely loved it. #StVincent
— it's RAD! (@da_nibbler) December 9, 2014Bound to happen to any child, really, when they’re playing the ponies one minute, and learning advanced hand-to-hand combat techniques the next.
While Murray remains a bedraggled sight to behold throughout St. Vincent, his work is enhanced by the whip-smart chemistry he shares with a wonderful support ensemble.
As Oliver, the young newcomer Lieberher is a real find in a 21st century Macaulay Culkin kind of way.
Just as effective — often surprisingly so — are Melissa McCarthy (who finally proves she can play an actual human being, and beautifully so, at that) and Naomi Watts (playing an Eastern European lady of the night also destined to join Vincent’s esoteric entourage).
All in all, St. Vincent is a deceptively uplifting and emotionally astute comedy, reminding us that when it comes to people like Vincent de Van Nuys, it’s not the cover of the book that should be judged.
Not when the torn and dog-eared pages within have such colourful stories to tell.
SEE:St. Vincent screens in advance previews Fri. Dec. 12 to Sun Dec. 14, Fri. Dec. 19 to Dec. 21. Full national release commences Fri. Dec. 26.
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Originally published as St. Vincent lets Bill Murray be Bill Murray, and that is a very good thing
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