The Holdovers – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Alexander Payne
Writer – David Hemingson
Stars – Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa

In a smart Massachusetts private boarding school in 1970, the Christmas vacation is about to take place.  Unfortunately, several pupils for a variety of reasons have no home to go to. Their misfortune is increased by the fact that one Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) will be in charge of them. The father of one of the boys emerges who wants to take all of them on a skiing trip. However, Angus (Dominic Sessa) is unable to make contact with his divorced mother to obtain the necessary consent so he is stuck with Hunham.

Hunham is a bachelor, set in his ways who has a disdain for his students which he does not hide as he tries to indoctrinate them with the delights of ancient civilisations. He and Angus have already sparred in class. Now they are together for the duration of the vacation. Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) the school cook will be looking after them.

Angus is adrift in the world, a child of divorced parents whose mother is more interested in her new man than in him. Mary works in the school so that her son can receive a first-class education is grieving as he has been killed recently in Vietnam. Angus, Hunham and Mary make an unlikely trio. However, David Hemingson’s admirable script brings us through several twists and turns which reveal surprising aspects of the personality of each. The script is also elevated by the engaging comedy which lies within it. In short, it is a delight to be in the company of these three very different individuals which happenstance has thrown together.

Giamatti is a tour de force as Hunham. While his disdain for his pupils is not an admirable quality his far greater disdain for the headmaster of the school and his corrupt ways shows Hunham is a man of substance. Giamatti encapsulates the underlying integrity of Hunham in the flim-flam trivia of school politics. His comic flair is present throughout. A lovely example was his ability by a small gesture of the hands to depict the sad fate of the unfortunate Icarus. His task was assisted by the extraordinary assuredness of Sessa as Angus. He plays a young man who has few substantive emotional supports and is searching for some bedrock in life. It is an exceedingly challenging role which Sessa performs with skill. He was not even 21 years of age when the film was shot. Randolph as Mary brings a welcome dose of everyday humanity into the the arcane life of this boarding school. She bears her pain with dignity but it does not prevent her from ceasing to have ambitions for those who are important to her.

The Holdovers is a joyous film. It is beautifully acted and it touches on many aspects of life including institutional corruption which are not often aired and certainly not as amusingly as here. Director Alexander Payne (Sideways 2004, Nebraska 2013) orchestrates an unlikely story into a comic gem. The seventies are not remembered favourably for the most part but here is a movie set at the beginning of that decade which is both funny and heartwarming. Payne has created a film of substance which deserves all the plaudits.