22. St. Vincent

November 8th in Chicago. Bill Murray is Vincent; a retired, gambling, alcoholic, bitter Viet Nam veteran living in Sheepheads Bay, NY. Vincent lives alone and the only relationships he has is with his bar pals, Daka (Naomi Watts) the pregnant Russian prostitute that visits him weekly and his bookie (Terrance Howard). After driving home drunk and sleeping it off on the kitchen floor, Vincent is awoken to the sound of a tree branch falling on his car caused by the movers bringing in Vincent's new neighbors, recently divorced mother Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) and her son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher).

The story is pretty simple, bitter Vincent starts to look out for bullied Oliver. Vincent and Oliver begin to take a shine to each other. Vincent endows Oliver with some street smarts and Oliver gets Vincent to become a little less bitter. Now Vincent does not like people but he always seems to do the right thing. He has a wife that has Alzheimer's that he visits in the nursing home weekly. He seems content with showing the world what a jerk he is instead of a cantankerous old man with a good heart. Vincent suffers a stroke when his bookie comes to collect. Maggie, Oliver and Daka all pitch in to help Vincent. Oliver gets assigned an assignment to find an everyday saint from his parochial school and guess who he chooses? Turns out that Vincent was a decorated veteran who saved some his fellow soldiers in Viet Nam and he's been visiting his wife for years despite the fact that she doesn't remember him.

This was a good film and a nice role for Murray but he seems to play and older less affluent version of Herman Blume from Rushmore. Solid acting all the way around especially Lieberher as Oliver. The film was written and directed by Theodore Melfi. Melfi has 15 producer credits since 1998 and has a few shorts to his director credits. There are plot points in the film that come off as potential big moments but don't pay off. Vincent takes Oliver to the track and with advice from Oliver, Vincent wills the trifecta. Vincent gives Oliver a cut and opens a bank account for him. Vincent empties the account but nothing every becomes of it. He still gets to be "canonized" by Oliver. When Maggie's ex-husband forces a custody hearing, it comes out that Vincent has taken Oliver to the track and to the bar. Maggie's ex then gets visitation rights. Again no repercussions. I guess since it's Bill Murray, it's all good.

This is not a bad film but it isn't all that great either. There's not a whole lot that's new and it seems Melfi is trying to make a quirky, character driven film a la Wes Anderson. There are some flaws but its a good film with solid acting all around. Worth a view if your a Murray fan for sure.