Directed by:
Theodore MelfiScreenplay:
Theodore MelfiCinematography:
John LindleyComposer:
Theodore ShapiroCast:
Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O'Dowd, Terrence Howard, Jaeden Martell, Kimberly Quinn, Lenny Venito, Nate Corddry, Dario Barosso (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Bill Murray plays Vincent, a misanthropic and curmudgeonly old man who becomes responsible for his neighbour Maggie (Melissa McCarthy)'s son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher). Maggie, who has enough on her mind with starting her new job at the hospital while going through divorce proceedings from Oliver's father, employs Vincent to take care of Oliver after school. Unbeknown to Maggie, Vincent is a heavy drinker and smoker and likes to hang around bars and racetracks in his spare time. But is there more to Vincent than meets the eye? (Entertainment in Video)
(more)Reviews (5)
As soon as I saw the poster, I said to myself, "This is going to be absolute nonsense." Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. It's not nonsense. The film got me and surprised me. Bill Murray is great here, and he plays a rather challenging role this time. I finally got a chance to see Melissa McCarthy in something where she can show that she is a capable actress. And in the end, there is also the excellent Naomi Watts, who is also different than what we are used to from her. And great child actors. I thoroughly enjoyed this with all the emotions that came with it.
()
Bill Murray is back, and he’s great as always. It looks as if he’s completing the trio of characters from Lost in Translation
and Broken Flowers. But while his story and the stories of his neighbors and the lady of the night are conveyed in a
relaxed mood and contain a handful of humorous episodes, the film suffers from unoriginality and sentiment, and is
quite forgettable. All those comic grimaces, the mentor/boy relationship, and Naomi Watts’s eccentric performance in
the role of a Russian bimbo come across as a little self-serving. [San Diego Film Festival]
()
Even though the ending is full of pathos, I didn’t mind it at all. All the while I was watching this movie, I felt such a kind heart from it that the ending put me into an incredibly wonderful mood. Bill Murray plays a grouch who has such great reasons to act the way he does that even had he never starred in another movie I’d always remember him with fondness thanks to this role. But the movie is not about him alone. It’s also about a little boy portrayed by Jaeden Lieberher, his mom, but also about the teacher who’s bringing faith into it, which would usually annoy me just a bit. But in this case, I don’t mind at all, because everything is so beautifully natural and sincere that it gave me the impression that this world can’t be so bad after all.
()
Bill Murray is still far and away the best contemporary American actor to go to see at the movies. And if he's seconded by Melissa McCarthy and Chris O'Dowd and the comedic timing is absolutely spot on? Well, it means one thing. I'm going to watch it again.
()
As much as the film scored points here and there, for its thorough study of what my old age will look like, by the end it managed to blow them all with its cunning elegance. These safe bets irritate me, and I still hate myself for them, for the way they show my lowliness by making me predictably amused just by Bill Murray being alcoholically cool and pissing off the whole street. Fortunately, St. Vincent is pretty poorly shot, has downright terrible editing (it looks like they switched to PG-13 at the last minute), and the ending is exactly so wrong and unfunny that the real Vincent would have thrown a shoe at the TV.
()