{"id":1622,"date":"2015-06-05T17:39:16","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T21:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1622"},"modified":"2026-10-07T15:17:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T19:17:56","slug":"st-vincent-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1622","title":{"rendered":"St. Vincent-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Vincent-2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Theodore Melfi<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Bill Murray<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #246<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"70295665\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed June 5, 2015<\/p>\n

Grade: B-<\/strong><\/p>\n

St. Vincent (2014) succeeds only because of the charming, funny appeal of its star, Bill Murray, who fronts this cute, mainstream comedy.<\/p>\n

Set in blue-collar Brooklyn, New York, it follows a curmudgeonly old man (the title character, Vincent) who befriends a lonely young boy named Oliver, new to the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

The cast also includes Oliver’s struggling mother, Maggie (Melissa McCarthy), and Vincent’s pregnant stripper girlfriend, Daka (Naomi Watts).<\/p>\n

I found it intriguing that we meet Vincent first, then watch him evolve from a grumpy, cutting older man into a begrudging babysitter for the neighbor boy, while clashing with Maggie and fighting with Daka.<\/p>\n

Murray returns to comic wit, using his now-legendary flawless dry, sarcastic humor and perfect timing, and he shows much of that in St. Vincent.<\/p>\n

Throughout all of this, Vincent remains brutally honest with his snarky remarks (mainly aimed at Maggie), yet heartwarming, and I love this aspect of the film.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Murray, Vincent is lovable, making the film, which with lesser talent, would be overly sentimental<\/p>\n

As th.e film progresses, we see Vincent’s struggles- his wife suffers frhas Alzheimer’ss indebted to bookies (primarily Terence Howard- in a bit of a throwaway role).<\/p>\n

The film staggers with some predictability issues and is formulaic, with an easy-to-predict warm finale.<\/p>\n

Of course, in true form, Vincent is a Vietnam vet who drinks, gambles, and is angry at the world, but he has a heart of gold; so despite being temperamental, the audience falls in love with him (patriotism helps).<\/p>\n

The character contains every clich\u00e9 in the book. A mean older man who rises to new heights and becomes a nice grandfather figure to a bullied boy is what this film is going for.<\/p>\n

The bullying of Oliver is also contrived- during one scene, Oliver, after being picked on once again by the prominent bully, flies into a seething rage and breaks the bully’s nose.<\/p>\n

The audience is supposed to buy that the waif-ish, shy kid triumphs over the bully. If only life were that simple.<\/p>\n

Inevitably, after both serve after-school detention, they bond over bathroom cleaning and become best friends.<\/p>\n

Who did not see that coming?<\/p>\n

In addition, most of the characters are one-note.<\/p>\n

Naomi Watts is a sexy, aging Russian (not sure I bought that accent) stripper with a soft spot- she comes across as uptight but is caring- another clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Melissa McCarthy is a hard-working, soon-to-be divorcee, trying to raise her kid right- one-dimensional. Even Vincent is seemingly tough as nails, but of course, has a soft spot for the neighbor kid.<\/p>\n

The casting of Watts, McCarthy, and Howard is okay, and I surmise the film was going for casting “name” actors, but these parts might have been played by unknowns and had the same effect.<\/p>\n

The gem is Murray.<\/p>\n

Murray effortlessly breathes life into a character who otherwise would have been as dull as dishwater. I found the writing the film’s weakest point.<\/p>\n

A major incident brings the cast together united as one (yawn). The film closes with the family all happily eating dinner together. I don’t see this as a spoiler, since this ending can be seen a mile away.<\/p>\n

Despite the film’s flaws and sentimentality, it is admittedly sweet and humorous at times, and it sends a nice message to the audience: be kind to one another and help each other get through life.<\/p>\n

Without Bill Murray, this film would have been completely bland and unlikeable.<\/p>\n

St. Vincent (2014) is a feel-good film that is perhaps too feel-good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Vincent-2014 Director Theodore Melfi Starring Bill Murray Scott’s Review #246 Reviewed June 5, 2015 Grade: B- St. Vincent (2014) succeeds only because of the charming, funny appeal of its star, Bill Murray, who fronts this cute, mainstream comedy. Set in blue-collar Brooklyn, New York, it follows a curmudgeonly old man (the title character, Vincent) … Continue reading St. Vincent-2014<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,49,192,41,215,211,11667],"tags":[1816,1172,3289,6600,3288,2212,2440,4645],"class_list":["post-1622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-films","category-comedies","category-dramas","category-indiefilms","category-indie-comedies","category-indie-dramas","category-new-york-city","tag-ann-dowd","tag-bill-murray","tag-chris-odowd","tag-jaeden-martell","tag-melissa-mccarthy","tag-naomi-watts","tag-terrence-howard","tag-theodore-melfi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1622"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24740,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions\/24740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}