At The Omniplex: ‘St Vincent’

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st vincent 2‘St. Vincent’

by John Lyons

IT’S been quite some time since there’s been a quintessential stand-out performance from Bill Murray.

As far as I can remember, the last role of his that got everyone talking was in Sofia Coppola’s ‘Lost in Translation’… and that was released over a decade ago!

I knew close to nothing about ‘St. Vincent’ going into it, but I had heard amazing things about Murray’s performance.

Vincent is an incredibly bitter, retired veteran who is dividing his time between his drinking and gambling addictions. He’s an old loner living in squalor with a disdain for the world around him.

After a new neighbour, Maggie (played by Melissa McCarthy), moves into the house next door, Vincent forms an unlikely friendship with her young son, Oliver.

I’m having a hard time processing this film. The filmmakers had a really good starting point, for the first few scenes I genuinely thought that I had made a really good choice by deciding on going to see this odd little film.

But somehow, the filmmakers managed to drop the ball time and time again as the film progressed, in what can only be described as an exercise in overt sentimentality.

‘St. Vincent’ starts off with a primary focus on Bill Murray’s character, but once Maggie and Oliver come into play, the film shifts gears and the relationship between Vincent and Oliver becomes the driving point of the film. As the film progresses, many other subplots are eased into the film, a lot of which are fairly unnecessary to begin with.

In hindsight, it seems rather obvious that the goal of ‘St. Vincent’ was to start off with a highly-unlikeable character, and by the end of the film the audience will have learned to adore him, come hell or high water.

“Oh how sweet, he’s not such a bad guy after all.” Had the filmmakers hit me over the head with any more hints as to what a sweetheart Vincent actually is, I’d probably be spouting blood.

The most frustrating part of all of this was that the start of the film was actually the best part. Writer/Director Theodore Melfi had given Bill Murray this dirty, rotten, low-life of a character and let him loose in front of a camera. And it was great!

Like the film or not, there’s no denying that Murray is an absolute revelation in it. He shamelessly and effortlessly embodies the character of Vincent and unquestionably dominates the screen throughout.

In fact the entire film is extremely well cast. Although Melissa McCarthy regularly starred/co-starred in comedies as the foul-mouthed queen of one-liners, in this film she demonstrates her dramatic acting chops as a determined and thoughtful mother.

Her son, Oliver (played by newcomer Jaeden Lieberher), is a wonderful find and is surprisingly engaging as Vincent’s polite little sidekick. And Naomi Watts gives an unexpected comedic performance as Daka, a Russian prostitute. How delightful.

While there is some sentimental stuff that isn’t overplayed, and while the film does offer some genuinely sweet and funny moments, overall ‘St. Vincent’ squandered it’s interesting premise by quickly fashioning itself into a tacky redemption story.

There’s a lot of good ingredients here, but they just aren’t mixed together right. In the library of Bill Murray films, ’St. Vincent’ will probably be the one that I’ll end up looking at as: ‘The Bill Murray Film that could’ve been…’

6/10

Follow John Lyons on Twitter: @Fireinthelyons

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