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ST. VINCENT

"Very Rough In and Around the Edges"

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What You Need To Know:

ST. VINCENT is a comedy starring Bill Murray as an old, cantankerous, sinful gambler who finds himself babysitting and becoming friends with a 12-year-old boy whose mother divorced her cheating husband. Vincent, who has a gambling and an alcohol problem, agrees to take care of 12-year-old Oliver while Oliver’s mother works long hours to make ends meet. What the mother doesn’t know is that Vincent starts taking Oliver to his regular haunts, including the racetrack, a local dive bar and the senior home where Vincent’s Alzheimer’s stricken wife lives. An odd friendship develops between Vincent and Oliver. Then, a unique school assignment leads Oliver to find out more about his new friend.

ST. VINCENT has its delightful, funny and touching moments. It also has a positive ending that gives the movie an overtly Christian, redemptive worldview. However, these positive qualities are combined with some antinomian (or lawless) pagan content, including lots of foul language, lewd moments, alcohol abuse, and gambling. Vincent’s character is just too rough to fit into the happy, uplifting ending that ST. VINCENT tries so earnestly to provide.

Content:

(CC, B, PaPa, FR, P, LLL, V, SS, N, AA, D, MM) Strong, overt Christian worldview and premise, mitigated by some strong sinful, crude pagan behavior and false antinomian theology that seems to overlook some of the sinfulness, plus a pro-military message at one point; 33 obscenities (including one “f” word, some “s” and “ah” words, some “h” words, and a couple SOB words), one GD profanity, four light exclamatory profanities, and an obscene gesture; bully gives boy a bloody nose, bully punches boy in stomach and knocks him down, man takes bully’s skateboard and breaks it in half, boy breaks bully’s nose by hitting it with flat of his hand (as man taught him to do next time bully harassed him), man collapses when hit by minor stroke and has to do therapy to walk and speak properly again, men threaten to beat up older man for gambling debt before he collapses, and they leave before ambulance can come; briefly depicted fornication with prostitute in one scene, implied fornication afterwards, man visits bar where women in tiny bikinis dance provocatively, and brief talk about husband sleeping around, which broke up marriage; rear and upper male nudity; lots of alcohol use to the point of abuse and brief drunkenness; lots of smoking; and, gambling, cantankerous old man is mean and insolent, old man takes 12-year-old to racetrack and bar, divorced mother lets stranger take care of her son because she works long hours, father won’t pay child support, woman has dementia and doesn’t recognize her long-time husband.

More Detail:

ST. VINCENT is a comedy starring Bill Murray as an old, cantankerous, sinful gambler who finds himself babysitting and becoming friends with a 12-year-old boy whose mother divorced her cheating husband. The story’s core is Christian, with a Catholic priest character, who has a positive influence on the movie’s touching resolution of the plot problem, but there’s lots of sinful, crude, pagan behavior occurring too, so extreme caution is definitely warranted.

The movie opens with Vincent having a paid tryst with a local, pregnant exotic dancer from Russia and wrecking his fence and mailbox trying to back into his driveway. The next day, a moving van breaks a limb off his tree, and he blames the van’s driver for wrecking the fence. The van holds the belongings of Maggie, a recently divorced woman, and her 12-year-old son, Oliver. Maggie and Oliver are moving in next door, but Vincent gives Maggie a difficult time anyway.

However, when Maggie’s forced to work long hours at her hospital job one night, Oliver has to wait for her at Vincent’s house. That’s because a bully at Vincent’s new parochial school stole his regular clothes, including his housekey, during gym class. Maggie reluctantly agrees to pay Vincent to take care of Oliver regularly while she works. What she doesn’t know is that Vincent starts taking Oliver to his regular haunts, including the racetrack, a local dive bar and the senior home where Vincent’s Alzheimer’s stricken wife lives.

An odd friendship begins to develop between Vincent and Oliver. Then, Oliver’s English teacher, Father Geraghty, assigns the students to pick one person in their own life who mimics the qualities of a Catholic Saint that inspires them. Oliver is inspired by St. William of Rochester, the Patron Saint of Adopted Children. He picks Vincent as the embodiment of St. William, but can Oliver’s project bring out the good in Vincent, despite all his flaws?

ST. VINCENT has its delightful, funny and touching moments. It also has a positive ending that gives the movie an overtly Christian, redemptive worldview. However, these positive qualities are combined with some antinomian (or lawless) pagan content, including lots of foul language, lewd moments, alcohol abuse, and gambling. The negative content is stronger and more gratuitous than it needed to be. Also, Vincent’s character is just too rough to fit smoothly into the happy, uplifting ending that ST. VINCENT tries so earnestly to provide. He gets away with too much in the movie’s story.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.