Nerd Movie Reviews

St. Vincent Review part 2

Not to say this film is in all ways brilliant.  Pacing dragged at points (it certainly felt a lot longer than a mere 102 minutes) and the supporting pregnant hooker Daka (Naomi Watts) tended to dominate every scene she was in and had a very thick layer of unrealism about her.  The director seemed to have a thing for accents as she had a thick Russian one and Bill Murray had a Brooklyn accent that felt just off enough to be annoying (probably my West Coast bias, but my mom is from Brooklyn so I grew up with that accent and Bill’s didn’t quite nail it).  I seem to be using the word misogyny a lot in my reviews later but the dominating secondary story about a Russian hooker who has to quit her job because she is pregnant is not going to inspire the next modern Belva Lockwood (look it up).  The story tends to meander from set piece to set piece without much guidance from the overriding story arc.

But those are mere piffles on an otherwise fun and well executed movie.  Melissa McCarthy took all the serious, non comedy work she did in her last comedy Tammy and nailed a great single working mom performance.  The kid was great too and Bill Murray his usual brilliant self.  Chris O’Dowd was very fun as the priest.  The best part of this film was the dialog and you can really feel yourself pulled out of the theater into a fly on the wall of a grumpy old man’s interesting life (kind of like a less scripted reality TV show).

Quick movie recap: Vincent (Bill Murray) is a broken husk of an old man who spends his time drinking, smoking, sleeping with pregnant prostitutes, and gambling at the race track.  He wakes up one morning to find a moving van wrecking his tree and thus does he meet his new neighbor Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) and her son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher).  Maggie and Oliver just moved to Brooklyn to get away from her cheating ex husband.  Vincent takes an immediate dislike to both of them but later on she has to pay him to watch Oliver after school.

At that point the bonding begins a la Mr. Miyagi and Daniel-san (only with more alcohol.  Image courtesy of the Karate Kid t shirt category).  Vincent teaches Oliver how to box an Exacta, drink in a bar, and deal with crazy pregnant Russian strippers (I felt a kinship on the Exacta thing as the only two games my father ever taught me to play were chess and blackjack.  I might not know thing one about baseball except it’s the game with the bats but I know what to do on a 12 when the dealer is showing a face card).  Oliver’s father surfaces to cause trouble and uses Vincent as an example of Maggies unfit mothering.  Meanwhile Vincent has a heartwarming secret but at the same time owes a bookie lots of money.  Things go up and down, people get sick, and lots of other stuff happens.

(continued)

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