"St. Vincent" just debuted on DVD and I decided to give it a watch. After all, the reviews I had read about it were pretty good and I was curious what Bill Murray is up to these days. Well, after seeing it, I found that the first 80% or so was excellent but the final portion was formulaic and, well, annoying.

When the film begins, you see that Vincent (Murray) is an alcoholic and a jerk. When a struggling divorcée (Melissa McCarthy) moves in with her son next door, Vincent isn't the least bit friendly towards them since he IS a jerk. Soon, however, an emergency comes up and her boy is forced to go to Vince's house until his mother returns from work. In the interim, Vince is pretty nasty towards the kid and will only watch him after the mother agrees to pay him! Soon, however, she begins using him for babysitting services....though I have no idea why. He is a surly drunk jerk. Together, Vincent and the boy have some adventures--he teaches the kid to fight, takes him to the horse track as well as a bar.

So far, I was enjoying the film because it was so wrong. After all, Vince didn't really have too many redeeming qualities and he really was a terrible person--and I appreciated that because too often in films (especially from Hollywood) the filmmakers or film execs feel that there is a need to tack on a nice ending--one with redemption and change. Well, they ended up ruining the film and did exactly this-- even when essentially Vincent was STILL a drunk, surly jerk!! And, the kid ends up doing a huge presentation in front of the entire school and guests where he says that Vincent is a living saint. No, he's a drunk, nasty, rotten old man who never really improved much through the course of the film!! Talk about a cop-out ending!!

So is the film terrible? No...and that is the problem. It's not terrible, as Murray did a great job playing Vincent and it was nice to see Melissa McCarthy doing a straight role instead of comedy. But the formulaic and unnecessary ending just left me annoyed-- annoyed that the groundwork for this happy ending never really had been laid out in the film. They should have either made Vince completely horrible or shown more hidden wonderful things about the guy to justify caring. But as it is, I was just left very frustrated.

Oh, and if you think I am being too hard on the film, remember--he stole all the kid's money he'd saved and never paid anyone back or took responsibility for his actions. This is NOT the behavior of a saint!!

Vincent MacKenna (Bill Murray) is a drunken grumpy gambling Vietnam vet. He has run out of money. He can't even pay pregnant Russian prostitute Daka (Naomi Watts) for her regular visits. Divorced Maggie Bronstein (Melissa McCarthy) and her son Oliver move in next door. Zucko (Terrence Howard) is looking to collect debts from Vincent. Oliver gets picked on in school. Vincent wants to be paid for babysitting and they build a surprising friendship. Brother Geraghty (Chris O'Dowd) gives Oliver's class an assignment to determine if someone they know deserves a sainthood.

Bill Murray is getting good at playing these grumpy characters. The little kid is good and cute but not too cutesy. Melissa McCarthy takes a nice simple dramatic turn. Naomi Watts should probably drop the Russian accent. I also love Chris O'Dowd's character. There are a couple of twists that I especially like. I like that Oliver makes friends with his bully. I also like that Oliver's father doesn't turn out to be evil. There are some good laughs. There are some sections where I feared that the movie would turn too sentimental. It does try hard to be a tear-jerker. The movie mostly succeeds in giving a great family of characters.

This movie is a touching story. It is about a boy who befriends a crusty curmudgeon in Vincent (Bill Murray) and discovers some facts of life. But the deeper story is that family is really the friends you choose and the wide cast of misfits are brought together by a mix of circumstances and events. They are lost but then are found. The story also showcases the lost heroes of Vietnam. These veterans are dying off and as a nation we have forgotten their contributions in this senseless war. The boy is the glue to the cast and he bridges the gap from the wide differences between the characters. I would highly recommend if and is sure to conjure up a tear or too. A real good feel movie that shows how saints are everywhere, everyday, check out St. Vincent. Bill Murray is a masterful actor that becomes the character,