'St. Vincent': Bill Murray's great as one nutty nanny

Vincent de Van Nuys, the sour, shabby resident of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, played with thorough, and thoroughly engaging, familiarity by Bill Murray, has life the way he wants it: a regular perch at the local bar, trips to Belmont Park to bet on the horses, a friendly stripper who drops by for a personal lap dance when he can afford her.

But in St. Vincent - a first feature from writer and director Ted Melfi - what passes for happiness in this curmudgeon's corner of the universe is upended when a single mother (Melissa McCarthy) and her young son (Jaeden Lieberher) move in next door. Maggie has to work long hours, and 12-year-old Oliver has to get home from school, get food in his mouth, get put to bed. Vincent could use the extra money, and so he becomes a kind of reluctant babysitter, caregiver, a nanny in cargo shorts, reeking of beer and cigarettes.

Life lessons, and inappropriate behavior, ensue.

If St. Vincent flirts with sappiness - it does, and how - Melfi has struck gold in the pairing of Murray and Lieberher. The star of Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters has nabbed a career-defining role here, and he goes at it with a Murray-esque roll of the eyes, full of blotto charm and wary cool.

Vincent is not about to behave himself for the sake of this kid - he is who he is. But, of course, the kid, innocent and inquisitive, brings something long suppressed out of Vincent. Lieberher, a Philly native transplanted to L.A., is a reed-thin, wide-eyed wonder. There's none of that precocious Hollywood child-actor stuff going on; he's seriously thinking about what he has to say, assessing his words and their implications. It's rare to see any actor - let alone a novice, barely out of the single digits - so readily and naturally displaying inner thought in front of the camera.

Naomi Watts, on a roll right now with her sublime supporting work in Birdman, goes out on a limb - a comic limb - as Daka, the Russian pole-dancer who is pals with Vincent, and who finds herself bulging with child. (Not a big demand for pregnant strippers - it's kind of tricky in those platform stilettos when your center of gravity starts to shift.) Chris O'Dowd is Oliver's Catholic school teacher, a jolly, jesting fellow whose classroom assignment spurs Oliver to get to know Vincent even better.

And Murray's Vincent is well worth getting to know better, flaws and all.

"St. Vincent" 6 p.m. Thursday. *** (out of four stars)

"Birdman" 8:30 p.m. Thursday. ****

Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater, Broad and Spruce Streets. Tickets: $20 per movie; limited availability. Information: www.filmadelphia.org

St. Vincent  *** (out of four stars)

Directed by Ted Melfi. With Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O'Dowd, Jaeden Lieberher. Distributed by the Weinstein Co.

Running time: 1 hour, 43 mins.

Parent's guide: PG-13 (profanity, adult themes).

Playing at: 6 p.m. Thursday at Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center. Opens in area theaters Friday.

215-854-5629

@Steven_Rea

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