Four stars. Rated PG-13, for sexual candor, mature thematic content and occasional profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 10.24.14
Bill Murray gets more emotional
complexity out of a dangling cigarette, than most actors could generate via
three pages of dialogue.
 |
| Intending to teach an all-important work ethic to young Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher), Vincent (Bill Murray) orders the boy to mow the yard ... despite the fact that actual blades of grass are long gone, leaving nothing but dirt and dust behind. |
He fires on all cylinders in this
cheerfully caustic dramedy from writer/director Theodore Melfi, as polished a
feature debut as one could hope for. (While he also co-wrote and directed Winding Roads back in 1999, that never made it past the film festival circuit
... so it doesn’t really count.)
Murray’s sterling presence aside,
this film also boasts the best curmudgeon/trusting little boy dynamic since
Billy Bob Thornton terrorized young Brett Kelly, in Bad Santa. But this
film’s Jaeden Lieberher is a much stronger actor ... in his first film role, no
less.
Cranky old coots are a cinematic
staple going all the way back to W.C. Fields, who quite notoriously admitted to
liking children “if they’re properly cooked.” More recent examples include Jack
Nicholson, in As Good As You Get, and Clint Eastwood, in Gran Torino.
The hallmark of a truly sublime
performance, however, comes with an actor’s ability to embrace and re-invent a
timeworn cliché: to utterly own what once was a stereotype, and make it his
own. Murray’s work here is just that sort of revelation.
His Vincent is a crusty,
ill-kempt slob who occupies an equally dilapidated house in one of Brooklyn’s
fading Sheepshead Bay side streets. An average afternoon involves several
losses at the local racetrack, where quietly dangerous loan shark Zucko
(Terrence Howard) warns about past-due debts, after which Vincent kills the
rest of the day on a well-worn stool at a bar where everybody knows his name.
And that he drinks too much.
Meals are an afterthought. The
one treasure in Vincent’s life is his fluffy white cat, Felix, who definitely
dines better than his master. Even after-hours sessions with his favorite
stripper, a Russian “exotic dancer” named Daka (Naomi Watts), are more formality
than pleasure; Vincent can’t even be bothered to stop smoking, or remove his
clothes, while, ah, doing the nasty.
We’re somehow unsurprised to see
that Daka is quite pregnant, not that this has slowed her strip club routines.
Much. Yet. Watts has a great time with this feisty role, mangling the English
language with straight-faced aplomb. Daka also is the only person who routinely
stands up to Vincent, giving as good as she gets.
