St. Vincent

St. Vincent is an odd sod of a move that doesn't neatly fit into the genre so obviously signalled in its poster, which seems to scream "Heartwarming Family Film."

The movie opens with Bill Murray telling an adult version of a kid's joke in the style of an unrepentant Irish alky, and shortly thereafter there's a bedroom scene that will give parents with kids watching pause - or even cause them to hit the off button, When will Bill Murray win an Oscar? If he'd kept up the portrayal he gave in the first few minutes of this film, and made it a tragic dramatic character study, he might have had it in the bag.

But that would have required kicking out Melissa McCarthy, her kid (don't know his name, but he was good), and most of the plot except that part that gets Bill sainthood status. The movie crams in too much, and hokey unbelievable stuff slips in, too - the idea that a receptionist at a Doctor's office can finesse insurance coverage for you, for example, or - that like Fonzie, you can get more product out of a vending machine by hitting it just right,

Obviously the Director allowed for spillage, reasoning that you can do that in comedy - but this is more of a dramedy, and it really doesn't work. It's a pleasure to see Murray navigate, as it usually is, but it's painful to see how well he can do without adequate support and reward in terms of a worthy script and direction with integrity. Here he turns down the "Murray" knob so low we start to see the real person.

This one is in that no-man's land that frustrates fans of Murray and movies in general - it's good enough to show glimmers of potential for greatness, and mediocre enough to press all the buttons like a bored security guard on night rounds. We hear a lot about how Murray chooses his roles carefully - is age causing him to compromise? Probably not - we can see how this would have appealed to him, based on his life history - but he's got the bucks and the reputation to produce something on his own, and he should lay down the golf clubs long enough to give us the legacy he's got in him.