About halfway through The Holdovers, I would have described it as a cup of hot cocoa on a cold day. Then it kept going…
It wasn’t any worse, in fact the 2nd half might be better than the first. But instead of being a standard feel good sort of film it goes a bit deeper. The Holdovers is a film about heartache, heartbreak, and grief that somehow manages to not be a SAD movie. There’s sadness, sure….the heart of the film is the level of humanity afforded to the three main characters who have to learn to live with their own sorrows.
Set during the month of December 1970 at a prestigious men’s boarding school in New England that nearly dates back to America’s founding — Paul Giamatti plays Paul Hunham, a hardass professor who gives no wiggle room to students, even if it ends up getting him into trouble. One of the joys of the movie is seeing Giamatti fire off insults at a reading level far above the present company. He gets the biggest laughs — me and the older skewing (packed) crowd were laughing regularly and loudly.
He’s extremely passionate about knowledge and history and literature — unfortunately for his students, he could not be less passionate about them. It’s an archetype you’ve probably seen before, either in movies or in real life. Giamatti gives it a depth and spin to it — Hunham is so well read yet can’t seem to find a good application for all the *stuff* he knows. He’s too awkward to make friends or land a girlfriend, too scared to start writing his book, too committed to an idea of discipline and rules to positively impact the students he teaches. One thing that often bugs me with a character like Paul Hunham — movies that do it poorly either don’t have reasonable explanation as to how someone ends up like this, or fail to show any redeeming qualities or scenes where their humanity shines through for a brief moment *prior* to the end where they figure it all out. It’s like a plane in a nosedive, you have to start pulling up for a while before it actually straightens out.
Each character is given the depth and humanity that Hunham is too. Dominic Sessa plays Angus, a closed off, acerbic, bright young kid — abandoned by his mother and his step dad during Christmas break, Angus has to stick around with the rest of the holdovers, the kids who can’t go home during Christmas. Paul Hunham and Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s Mary Lamb, the school’s head cook, are essentially the only adults watching over the kids. The kids turns into just kid — only Angus is left. Sessa is phenomenal…he perfectly captures a bright antisocial hormonal depressed mess of a teenager. It’s not just that he’s smart though, he’s the product of an elite institution. And that’s a very specific note to hit — having spent some time around a well regarded private school that prides itself on turning young boys into young men much like the fictional Barton, Dominic Sessa hits that note perfectly. Public schools don’t make kids like that. It’s this blend of intelligent, know-it-all elitism crossed with nervousness shrouded by a sarcasm and a meanness that never lets anyone get within arms reach.
There’s an ebb and flow to his character, you seem him sympathise with another young boy who’s troubled, push away and lash out, deeply hurt by the circumstances of his life, long for love and attention, charm the room, disappoint those in charge…like his makeshift babysitters he’s a layered tangled mess of a person with real issues.
Mary Lamb is in charge of feeding the kids over break with whatever food they have left in the pantry. Her cooking is good, the ingredients and the condition of the pantry, less so.
She’s got depth too. Her son has just perished after being sent off to fight in Vietnam. It’s emphasized by Hunham that he’s the only Barton graduate to die in service, Mary couldn’t afford to send him to college. Usually Barton boys go to Yale or Princeton, avoiding the conflict entirely. Curtis wasn’t as lucky, and now Mary has to deal with the loss of her son.
They’re all grieving in their own way, they’re all trying to make sense of their lives….and director Alexander Payne gives them the space and time to do so. There’s poignant moments between the three, leaning on one another. It’s all real and raw…….this is very much a Christmas movie. It’s the Christmas movie that’s a little bit more honest to life. The one that speaks to the grief that can accompany a typically joyous time.
It’s beautiful and charming and a wonderful little movie. It’s rated R but it’s fair to call it a family movie. In many ways it’s a throwback movie. Go see it in theaters, it’s a nice one for a cold day. The Holdovers is cute and cozy, with a soundtrack to match. Snow is in the frame often — the grain and color of the film is textured and warm. If you were to pause randomly at any given moment there’s a good chance you’d end up with a postcard.
Like I said, it’s sad but it’s not a SAD movie. Kind of like Arrival (2016). There’s hope — and it’s found within the connections you make with others, often in places you least expect.
Life can be brutally cold…the only way to survive the real tough moments is by somehow continuing to move forward — with others to lean on — until you stumble your way into shelter from the storm. A blanket, a hot chocolate — they help, but you can still feel the chill. Looking out the window at the blizzard that almost claimed you, it’s possible now to appreciate the beauty in the snowflakes that fall.
