Jaeden Lieberher and Bill Murray (Atsushi Nishijima/The Weinstein Company)

“C’mon, coward—try to sell me something.” This is how cranky old Vincent (Bill Murray) answers the phone in director Theodore Melfi’s feature debut. Melfi has spoken at length about the complicated process of getting his script to Bill Murray, who can only be reached by leaving messages through a 1-800 number and hoping for the best. When Melfi contacted Murray’s attorney, the attorney told Melfi that he had to use the 1-800 number as well. The director told a recent preview audience that nearly all the characters in the film were inspired by someone he knew, from his own daughter to a cranky old uncle. Melfi also happens to be the son of a mob guy and a nun. Between that and his Bill Murray movies, there may well be a more interesting behind-the-scenes movie about St. Vincent. Most of St. Vincent’s leads carry the well-meaning script—that can sometimes be too cute and manipulative—which boils down to a theme that is frankly radical in contemporary cinema: that every human being has value, even if they’re an asshole.

We meet Vincent getting drunk at a neighborhood bar in Sheepshead Bay, a part of Brooklyn that has so far escaped the uber-gentrification that’s beset much of the borough. We watch Vincent listening to “Somebody to Love” on his Walkman and dancing. It’s exactly the kind of corny cranky old guy-with-a-heart-of-gold set-up that telegraphs emotional growth (he’s listening to “Somebody to Love” after all). But it gets better.

Single mother Maggie (Melissa McCarthy, strong in a dramatic role) and her son Oliver (newcomer Jaeden Lieberher) move into a Sheepshead Bay house next door to Vincent, a cranky son-of-a-bitch with a grumpy cat and a habit of verbally abusing anybody he encounters. Maggie works the night shift as a medical tech, and when her son is locked out of the house on his first day at school—his keys stolen by bullies at his new parochial school—Maggie is forced to ask Vincent to watch Oliver while she’s at work. He doesn’t seem to be doing it out of the kindness of his heart—he asks the struggling single mother for an hourly wage. The script never lets you see Vincent have an unselfish moment—until it does.

Among Vincent’s many transgressions is his relationship with Daka, a Russian prostitute played by Naomi Watts. Daka is the one character that Melfi says wasn’t inspired by someone in his life—and you can tell, though you can imagine she was inspired by the kind of older Russian women who wander Brighton Beach dressed like ladies of the evening. Hers is the most one-dimensional caricature; all gloss and cartoon villainess accent.

Even Daka is redeemed by the script. In fact, if you’re tired of Hollywood plots that inevitably redeem its fallen hero, you may be put off by the fact that everyone in the movie is redeemed. But the point of the movie is that everyone is redeemable—and not just the obvious heroes. The film’s producers auditioned 1600 kids before Melfi noticed Lieberher in a TV spot, and he holds his own with Murray without being too cute. For a class assignment, Oliver is charged with finding a real-life saint in his midst, hence the title of the film. Vincent is an extremely flawed but ultimately good person hobbled by some tragic life circumstances, and Murray knows this is Oscar bait. C’mon Academy cowards, tell me he doesn’t deserve it.

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St. Vincent
Written and directed by Theodore Melfi
With Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts and Jaeden Lieberher
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material including sexual content, alcohol and tobacco use, and for language
Running time 102 minutes
Opens today at Regal Gallery Place, Angelika Mosaic and AMC Loews Rio