My full review of St Vincent from Dec '14:
Vincent is an ageing curmudgeon. He lives alone, drinks too much, smokes too much, has money problems and a weekly assignation with a pregnant Russian hooker. A single mother and her son move in next door, and Vincent finds himself in the role of reluctant babysitter to her young son.
St Vincent is strongly billed as a comedy, which it certainly isn't. That's not to say that it's not funny, although I would regard it more as gently amusing throughout rather than laugh-out-loud funny. But there is as much drama as there is humour, with four of the five central performances being outstanding. Only Chris O'Dowd doesn't get the chance to do much other than deliver some juicy lines: his role is primarily functional. The others – Melissa McCarthy shows, again, that her main strength lies elsewhere than in being Crass Fat Woman, Jaeden Lieberher is a genuinely likable and real 10 year old, Naomi Watts' Russian hooker is both funny and believable, and Vincent himself may well have been the role that Bill Murray was born to play (after Peter Venkman, of course).
Both Vincent and his new neighbours are beset with problems and this film, to my delight, does not throw glib resolutions at those problems. The problems are not ignored, but they don't drive the film either. Rather, they are simply part of life and, as we find out more about Vincent (slightly ahead of young Oliver) we come to understand why he is the way he is. There is a moment about halfway through which had me in tears, and the film as a whole is touching and often moving. I greatly enjoyed it, and I recommend it.