I LOVE Bill Murray. Seriously. The iconic treadmill scene in Lost in Translation is something I can quite happily watch on repeat and laugh until I cry. Every single time.
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So when I saw a clip of Bill Murray mumbling along to Bob Dylan’s Shelter from the Storm while watering a dead pot plant on his front porch, I was already looking forward to St. Vincent.
Single mum Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) moves into a new home in Brooklyn with her 12-year old son, Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher). Oliver is a bit of an outcast at school, shy and bullied.
Bill Murray is Vincent, their cantankerous, bawdy, hedonistic Vietnam veteran neighbour. Naomi Watts – clearly having great fun in her role – is Dana, a pregnant Russian stripper, who is also Vincent’s “housekeeper”.
Maggie works long hours and is desperate for child care for poor Oliver. And so she is forced to take the very broke Vincent up on his offer to watch her son after school – for a fee of course.
Vincent brings Oliver along on all the stops that make up his daily routine - the race track, a strip club, and the local dive bar.
As the unlikely pair begin to learn from one another, an unexpected friendship blossoms. Vincent mentors Oliver in street survival and other worldly ways, and Oliver begins to see more in the old man than just his foibles.
When life takes a turn for the worse for Vincent, both of them find the best in each other that no one around them suspects.
The story is not really anything we haven’t already seen, but Bill Murray’s comic genius makes a pretty unlikeable character a joy to watch!
This acclaimed and very funny crowd-pleaser -- one of the year’s biggest independent comedy hits – is also surprisingly moving. Thoroughly enjoyable.