St. Vincent 2014

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: The adult supporting players are all excellent, but next to Murray, the key casting is Jaeden Lieberher as young Oliver. The kid is a natural in the sidekick role, never once playing it too cute or too actor-y. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "Maybe even Jack Nicholson couldn't do a better job than Murray playing this improbable hero - something that probably isn't going to be forgotten come Oscar time." Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: I found it the cinematic equivalent of a 10-mg. Valium. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: Naturally, Mr. Murray is a joy to watch. And he has brought so much joy to so many grumpy people he deserves whatever accolades he can accrue, even for a career-assessment comedy like "St. Vincent." Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Murray, of course, makes it all work well enough. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The overqualified actors often give quirky life to a script that denudes their characters of nuance. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Here, in all its splendor, is a cinematic character as robust and colorful as "A Confederacy of Dunces'" Ignatius J. Reilly. Read more

Jesse Hassenger, AV Club: For a movie about an irascible old coot babysitting a sweet-natured preteen boy, as Vincent does when single parent Maggie must work long hours at her hospital job, St. Vincent goes down easier than it probably should. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: You just wonder how much more fun it could have been. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: What is Murray doing in this sort of tapioca? Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Sentimental slop. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The broader visual comedy lacks finesse. But the actors win out. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Bill Murray is one of those actors blessed with the gift of making bad behavior seem grizzled and adorable. It's a valuable tool in any funny person's kit, and Murray uses it to carry the benignly naughty St. Vincent above its material. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: It's good to see funny gal McCarthy playing the straight woman in this comedy rather than the appealing/appalling lout. It's even better to see a working mom depicted with care. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: "St. Vincent" may not be a great movie, but it is a great lot of fun to watch. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: I'll admit that I got choked up at the end. I just wish it didn't feel like it was pulled out of me like a forced confession. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Amusing enough as long as Bill Murray sticks to his mean and ornery act but ultimately reveals its true self as a film equivalent of the gooey 1971 Ray Stevens song "Everything Is Beautiful." Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Soaked in whiskey, dipped in brine, Bill Murray delivers a salty, acerbic, inebriated comic blast as the unlikeliest saint imaginable in St. Vincent. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The movie slumps into the hokey, and the actor's curdled misanthropy makes way for a soothing, implausible uplift. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: This is Bill Murray's movie, and he dominates (and redeems) every scene he's in. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: You can put Murray in a drama or a comedy or almost anything that isn't too loud or too busy, and he'll drain the goo without also ditching the humanity. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: "St. Vincent," the movie, is a lot like its namesake character, Vincent: overexuberant, a bit predictable, messy in a very self-conscious way. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Resistance is understandable but futile. Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: Who wouldn't want to spend 102 minutes in the company of Murray at his grumpy best - his eyes in a perpetual roll, annoyed by anyone and everything, but somehow earning affection from those who annoy him? Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: If St. Vincent flirts with sappiness - it does, and how - Melfi has struck gold in the pairing of Murray and Lieberher. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Murray, with a stable of eccentric characters ranging across the landscape of his career, has selected increasingly idiosyncratic roles in recent years. Vincent is no exception. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: St. Vincent will dodge your impulse to projectile vomit. For that, all hail Bill Murray who whacks away at the script's sentimental softballs like A-Rod in full swing. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: We want the sentimentality without the education, forgiveness without expiation; we want assurance that there are no evil people, so that we don't have to consider whether we have tolerated them, enabled them or become them. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: One of these days, someone should make a movie about a really nasty old guy who, by the end of the story, is still a nasty old guy. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's a familiar premise - we've seen similar stuff in "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Up" - but it sails ahead on the collective charms of its ensemble cast. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Of course, Murray is the star attraction here, in a role that's both fan-friendly and reminiscent of the range he showed in "Broken Flowers" and "Lost in Translation." Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: St. Vincent is no conventional hagiography but it's the movie world's equivalent - a star vehicle. Give director Melfi credit for knowing the capacity of the engine he has under its hood. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A movie with laughter, soul and a twisting path to the heart. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: So thoroughly artificial that the Coke Zero you bought in the lobby will look like a shot of wheatgrass juice by comparison. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: [A] crowd-pleasing yet dangerously sentimental wacky-neighbor dramedy. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: St. Vincent tries its darnedest to be crowd-pleasing. This is not to say that it's not entertaining or lacks good performances. It's often quite funny. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: Somewhere, Venkman pukes. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's hard to judge films like this: The destination is often familiar and not always particularly interesting, but the ride itself isn't always so bad, especially when you've got Bill Murray along for company. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: [Murray's] freewheeling, deadpan image fuses so thoroughly with Vincent's own endearingly grizzled misanthropy that it's hard to tell where the actor ends and the geezer begins. Read more