In between crashing parties on a regular basis, one of cinemas most gifted comedic stars is still doing some seriously good work on the big screen. His latest starring role in St. Vincent, as a grumpy, hedonistic war veteran is one of the greatest performances Bill Murray has given in years. It’s just a shame that it’s too good for a movie that never knows exactly what it is.
A young boy, Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher) and his divorced mother, Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) move in next door to Vincent (Murray) and get off on the wrong foot with quite an eventful moving company. From here Oliver finds himself reluctantly being babysat by Vincent and the this unlikely duo embark on a world of adventures, complete with a few touching laughs along the way. Everything is light, fluffy and wonderfully entertaining as these two partake in gambling, drinking, fighting and everything else that you’d expect from a character like Vincent.
However, when things take a turn for the worst for Murray’s character, the movie starts to unravel. It quickly goes from buddy comedy to something that is quite dark and serious. All this happens fairly rapidly and this is a movie that is of two very distinctly different parts. While Vincent’s life is changed forever, director Theodore Melfi tries to reinject bits of humour, but unfortunately this feels out of place and forced.
Not even it’s supporting cast can lighten the load, even though Naomi Watts (almost unrecognisable) Terrence Howard, Chris O Dowd and Melissa McCarthy all have a go, St. Vincent never really works in the second half. While the cast pull off pretty decent performances, McCarthy, O Dowd and Howard all seem very underdeveloped, with one or two poignant scenes from Melissa McCarthy being the exception.
By no means is St. Vincent a bad movie. Just when it starts to realise what it is, a delightful, buddy comedy, it changes into something else entirely. Standalone, the first half and second half would make for decent movies, together though, they just don’t work. All that said, this is worth a punt just to see how gifted and funny Bill Murray is, as this is his finest performance since Lost in Translation.
