‘The Holdovers’ is a comedy drama that follows Paul (Paul Giamatti) a prep school history teacher who has been left in charge of babysitting students over the winter break that are staying at the school. The curmudgeonly tutor takes on the task and tries to instil order and discipline into the students. Forming unlikely alliances, the crotchety teacher opens up to one of his students, Angus (Dominic Sessa) and the school’s kitchen manager Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).
Introducing Paul as an isolated and detested individual, he is disliked both my his collegiate and class of students. With a strict approach to disciplined education, the teacher further alienates his students by delivering a devastating blow of dismal grades for the classes final exam.
Learning he will not be joining his mother and new step-father for Christmas, a disappointed Angus joins Paul and a handful of other students left behind at Barton Academy, as Paul lays down the rules for the two weeks to come. A few days into the scheduled winter break, a wealthy holdover’s father flies in via helicopter to take the students on a ski trip. Unable to get his parent’s permission, Angus is left behind with Paul and Mary.
What follows is a most unlikely thawing of icy personalities, as all three of the group slowly open up. Trapped inside by winter, Paul gets to know Mary as they share whisky and watch re-runs of ‘The Newlywed Game’, letting their relationship develop organically as their personalities are revealed through candid and unrestrained conversation spanning all aspects of their lives.
Angus and Paul’s comradery takes a while to kick off however. Both Giamatti and Sessa deliver a slew of hysterical and ridiculous slights at each other as they begrudge the idea of having to remain at the academy. An unlikely act of foolishness that lands Angus in hospital with a dislocate shoulder pushes the two to work together, as Angus helps cover up the accident.
Learning more of each others sensibilities, Paul tries to become more cordial, as Giamatti strains the up-tight Paul into trying his best to give Angus a pleasant winter break experience. Going one step further, Paul takes Mary and Angus to Boston on a ‘field trip’. Unknown to both Paul and Mary, Angus had pushed for it in order to visit with his father in a psychiatric institution.
Reaching an unexpected and sincere conclusion, the trio end their time together after winter break, as Angus’ mother uncovers the boy to have gone to Boston, resulting in Paul’s dismissal. Saving Angus from military school, the teacher sets off in search of his next calling.
Delivering singular and heartbreaking characters, the ensemble of the movie shine both together and apart as their insecurities, fears and hopes bubble to the top, transforming the scene of a sad holdover Christmas into that of a tightly knit trio of peers, who all take part in and appreciate each others individual emotional burdens.
Giamatti and Sessa showcase an excellent initial imbalance between Paul and Angus, allowing the tensions to rise as the two have grown to dislike each other largely due to the system they both operate in on a daily basis. With the clout of formal education lifted, the two manage to uncover their similarities far outweigh their differences, forming a genuine understanding and sympathy for each other.
Further emotional weight is added to the film as Randolph’s Mary keeps fighting under the weight of having lost her only son in Vietnam. Not unduly melodramatic, Randolph taps into the quiet sadness that cannot be let go of, with anger and rage of what has transpired spilling over in an emotional scene of the mother letting down her guard and openly mourning her child.
Substantial and meaningful, ‘The Holdovers’ delivers a rare example of true character depth that is not solely reserved for overly serious or desperate characters, displaying a wealth of humanity and intimacy amongst the most unlikely of compatriots, revealing that by and large we are all the same, yearning to be heard and understood.
Score: 4/4
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