Saint, Maybe: Bill Murray in "St. Vincent"

Vinnie is no saint. At least, that’s what most people who know him think. He’s a drunk and a gambler who spends time with a, um, “lady of the night.” When his new neighbors move in, a newly-single mother named Maggie and her son Oliver, he isn’t exactly the neighborhood welcome wagon. Maggie has a new job and no one else to turn to, so she asks Vinnie to watch Oliver after school.

Oliver begins attending a Catholic school, where his priest-teacher is a warm and kind person. Unfortunately the kids aren’t so nice, and Oliver is bullied. Vinnie teaches him some self-defense. Vinnie also takes him to the horse track and the local bar. He’s sorely lacking in good judgment as relates to childcare, or to his own life for that matter. On the other hand, Oliver accompanies him to the nursing home, where Vinnie regularly cares for a loved one. Oliver starts to see a different side of Vinnie.

Bill Murray plays this man of no moral standing quite convincingly, though he’s still likeable in some way. It’s possible this movie would be more effective if the neighbor weren’t someone I have always liked. I’m predisposed. I must not be the only one, because this theater was packed. This isn’t the kind of movie that generally packs in a crowd!

Murray’s is not the only strong performance. Melissa McCarthy plays Maggie. I have only ever known McCarthy from her female gross-out roles in things like Bridesmaids and Saturday Night Live skits. About two weeks ago I found a completely new side of her that many already knew about—I started watching the old TV series Gilmore Girls, and McCarthy is the sweet, bumbling cook who is best friends with Lorelai Gilmore. I love her in the show.

St. Vincent gives her something more to do with her acting chops. She definitely draws out some laughs, but Maggie takes a heartbreaking turn when she confesses to Oliver’s teacher the difficulties of her new life and the pain caused by her former husband.

And then there’s the prostitute, a pregnant Russian stripper, played with relish by Naomi Watts. Brian and I both spent some time trying to figure out where we’d seen this Russian actress before, until after the movie when we realized it was the Aussie actress. She brings another dimension to Vinnie’s character.

This movie is sappy and predictable; it’s also warm and full of a weird kind of joy. These people are dealing with the day-to-day dirt of life, and there’s no easy way out for any of them. No one turns into someone completely different; they are who they are. But they are slowly learning more about themselves and the people around them. They are finding the good hidden under the hard edges and the tough words. Although this movie is about a more humanistic variety of saints, we Christians might see it as finding the image of Christ that is in everyone. And that’s what we're supposed to be all about.

 

A Very Lively "Book of Life"

This animated ode to the Mexican holiday the Day of the Dead is a colorful, folk-art inspired vision. It’s also a bit confusing, both in storyline and in spirituality. I think it would be a lot for a small child to try to take in. I took my 11-year-old, who found it entertaining and interesting.

The animation is unusual because the characters are all meant to be wooden figures, and so their movement and body structure is very different from the ever-more-lifelike computer animation in many movies.

Manolo and Joaquin are competing for the lovely and independent Maria’s heart. Manolo wants to be a musician, but his family tradition is bullfighting. Joaquin’s father was a brave defender of the town, so Joaquin is also feeling pressure to follow in his footsteps.

The story is told during the celebration of the Day of the Dead, which is a time when people put out food and gifts for their deceased loved ones, remembering their time on earth. It is the way that the living show respect and love for those who have come before. This thread complements the fact that Manolo, Joaquin, and Maria are all trying to find the paths they will follow, even while they are heavily influenced by what their families desire from them.

At the same time, La Muerte, who rules the beautiful and wondrous Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, who rules the sad and colorless Land of the Forgotten, make a wager over which young man will win Maria’s hand in marriage. Xibalba’s trickery leads to the death of one of the young men, who makes a dangerous journey back to the land of the living to save Maria and their town from a terrible bandit.

There are all kinds of spiritual components to the story, which would make good discussion starters with a child who is open to it. How does the Land of the Remembered compare to a new earth? How does the Land of the Forgotten compare to hell? How much of our lives are predetermined and how much is free will? You don’t get those kind of spiritual questions from Monsters University! I’d take kids ages 8-12, and I’d plan to ask some deeper questions on the way home.

Plus we live in a country that is increasingly influenced by our neighbors to the south, so it seems like a little cultural education might be a good thing.

Strangely, in the midst of a very Mexican-looking movie, you have pop culture references to Mumford & Sons, Radiohead, and Biz Markie, among others. A 20-something man in the audience burst out laughing when he recognized one song before everyone else. Which is fun if you are into spotting such things, which I am, but doesn’t really seem to fit the tone of the movie.

All in all, this is a fun movie with lots to think about and even more visual beauty to wonder at. But parents should take seriously the spiritual terrain it covers.

 

 

Reliving My Boy's "Boyhood"

Boyhood follows the life of a boy, Mason, and it was filmed over 12 years as he grew from youngster until he left for college. Sounds like a documentary, but it’s not. Boyhood presents a fictional boy from a fictional dysfunctional family, but the actors were all filmed over a 12-year period. It makes for a unique movie experience.

This movie isn’t driven by a neat story arc—the plot is more like life itself, meandering through events and phases. But you still want to see what happens next. The fact that I can say that when the movie is almost three hours long tells me that the director, Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise, Before Midnight), has definitely gotten something right here.

As my son is just a year or two younger than the boy in the movie, it was fascinating to revisit so much of the culture we’ve moved through. I brought Andrew to a midnight release party for the seventh Harry Potter book, just as in the movie. Ethan Hawke’s character is reading Into Thin Air right about the time I did. He has run through his own string of video games in much the same order as Mason. We even had the same 20 Questions gadget.

It’s a gutsy move for a director, counting on the fact that none of his actors will drop out or be forced to drop out of the filming over that long of a time period. He had to gamble on the kids who would grow up in the film, hoping they would turn out to be good actors. In particular the boy in question needed to turn out to be a good actor. It worked out for him; Ellar Coltrane delivers a great performance as a young man struggling to see what future he should be chasing.

But the director is not the only one taking risks. It seems to me a pretty gutsy move for actors too. Especially for Patricia Arquette, who plays his mother. It’s not likely to be flattering to see yourself age, for real, in a movie that you started in as a young adult (though I would argue she was not young enough for this role) and ended squarely in middle age. Especially when your character has very questionable taste in fashion. Somewhere in the middle viewers see her as she appeared in the TV show “Medium,” if you remember such things. Arquette takes on this challenge, playing an intelligent, caring mother who has some serious flaws and makes a few terrible life choices.

Ethan Hawke, who plays Mason’s dad, ages too, but let’s be real, it’s never as flattering for the woman. Plus you get the feeling they make him look dorkier as he ages on purpose—I think he hasn’t really changed all that much.

This movie gives you a sense of how much happens in twelve years, and also how quickly it goes by for the adults. As Arquette’s character says toward the end, “I thought there was going to be more!” That’s a sentiment any of us of a certain age have experienced at one time or another.

While the parents are busy getting on with their lives and trying to make something more for themselves, sometimes the children are just collateral damage along the way. At moments you (or at least I) want to shake the parents into thinking about what they are doing. And the advice they hand out to their kids is for the most part a fistful of nothing. At one point he admits that when Mason and his sister were babies, he had no concern for the state of their souls. It seems that this is true of most of the adults in their lives. If nothing else, the movie might make you feel better about your own parenting!

So, mothers of teen boys who will soon be testing their wings, beware, this may hit too close to home. But it’s a fascinating look at the fleeting nature of youth, of life in general. At the end you may be whisked right back to being 18 or 19, when the whole world awaited.