St. Vincent

Vincent (Bill Murray), a reclusive, crotchety old guy, reluctantly finds himself socially interacting with his new neighbor, Maggie (Melissa McCarthy), and her son, Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher), after her movers break his fence, tree and car. Vincent eventually winds up babysitting Oliver, which leads to them bonding at the racetrack and inside bars, and hanging out with a “lady of the night” (Naomi Watts) much to the eventual chagrin of Maggie. Murray and Lieberher are great together, which allows you to forgive the sometimes schmaltzy direction and writing from Theodore Melfi. Vincent is the meatiest role Murray has gotten in almost a decade, and it's exciting to see him firing on all cylinders. Recently, I have been complaining about McCarthy getting stuck in mostly insulting slapstick roles. This movie gives her a chance to show off the fact that she can really act, and she makes the most of it. Lieberher is one of those child actors who seems like he's been acting for 30 years, well beyond the amount of time he has spent on this Earth. Watts takes the pregnant Russian prostitute role and runs with it, getting some good laughs through a wildly overdone accent. They all put this one over the top with their performances.