This week I started my 16th year of working in Catholic education, and I told myself what I always do at the start of each school year: You can’t trust first impressions.
I realize this goes against conventional wisdom, which holds that first impressions are critical. And I’m not opposed to the idea that you should put your best foot forward when you meet someone for the first time. But working with teenagers (and adults) has taught me that first impressions are often the least reliable indicator of someone’s true nature. That freshman who sleeps through Mass might be one of my best retreat leaders in four years. That taciturn transfer student who is just here to play football might reveal himself to be a talented actor. People wear all kinds of masks to get through the day, especially if they’re carrying heavy burdens. But if you’re patient, and willing to extend a lot of grace, they can surprise you.
Vincent MacKenna (Bill Murray) does not make a good first impression. An ornery, chain-smoking Vietnam vet living in a junk-strewn house in Brooklyn, Vincent is in debt to both the bank and the bookies at the local race track, but somehow always has a few dollars for a drink. His only close relationships are with a pregnant Russian stripper named Daka (Naomi Watts), who occasionally sleeps with him for cash, and a squash-faced cat as prickly as he is. Vincent almost gleefully repels everyone he meets. But as the semi-ironic title of Theodore Melfi’s “St. Vincent” (2014) implies, there’s more to him than a first impression might suggest.
The first person to see Vincent in a different light is Oliver (Jaeden Martell, then credited as Jaeden Lieberher), a young boy who moves into the house next door after his parents’ divorce. His mother Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) is a radiology technician trying to make a good first impression at a new job, which means working numerous late shifts; Oliver is often left home alone. When he loses his keys one day, he convinces Vincent to allow him to wait in Vincent’s cluttered home until Maggie comes home. From there, Vincent becomes his reluctant babysitter and even more reluctant mentor. A bond forms between the two, and Oliver sees a side of Vincent that few people ever do: There’s selflessness mixed in with all of that selfishness, pathos hidden beneath all of the snarling and cursing.
Oliver has just started at a Catholic school and is struggling to adjust. When he meets his teacher, the wry Brother Geraghty (Chris O’Dowd), he begs off leading the class in prayer because he’s “Jewish, I think.” Geraghty quickly assures Oliver that there are students of every faith in the classroom (although he also quips that Catholicism is the best because it has “the most rules, and the best clothes”). While teaching about the saints, Geraghty describes them as “human beings we celebrate for their dedication and commitment to other human beings.” He assigns the class a project to write about a modern day saint, a saint they know personally. Oliver chooses to write about Vincent.
It’s a baffling choice to anyone who has met the old man. Even from what I’ve described already, you might imagine that there’s more to pity about Vincent than to admire. But sainthood often arises from the most unexpected places. Is Vincent really that different from the young St. Augustine or St. Ignatius of Loyola? Saints are not defined by their perfection, but by their constant efforts to do good (or, in Catholic parlance, to follow Christ) despite the many roadblocks and setbacks that trouble their path.
Vincent does try to do good, almost in spite of himself. He visits and does laundry for his wife Sandy (Donna Mitchell) in an assisted living facility; her Alzheimer’s is so advanced that she no longer recognizes him, but he does whatever he can to make her smile. He cares for Daka, taking her to ultrasound appointments and making sure she has enough to eat. And while he says he’s only in it for the babysitting money, it’s clear that he cares about Oliver and wants to help him navigate this particularly troubled chapter in his life. He’s caustic, irreverent and possesses more bad habits than good ones. But the fact that he still cares at all is evidence that all of the goodness hasn’t been wrung out of his soul. After all of life’s failures and disappointments, self-inflicted or otherwise, Vincent hasn’t given up. There is something extraordinary about that: the tiny mustard seed from which greater holiness could someday grow.
As the school year begins, I try to remember to look out for those tiny seeds in the people I meet. First impressions can’t be relied upon; people have the potential to surprise you, if you’re willing to be patient and give them a chance. That new colleague who annoys you might become a good friend. That older person who seems out of touch might have something valuable to teach you. And, with enough time and grace, even the unlikeliest people in your life might turn out to be saints-in-progress.
“St. Vincent” is available to rent and buy on Amazon Prime and AppleTV+, or borrow from your local library.
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