Dominic Sessa, Paul Giamatti
“THE HOLDOVERS” My rating: B+ (In theaters)
133 minutes | MPAA rating: R
It starts out like a misanthropic “Goodbye Mr. Chips” and ends like a pessimist’s take on “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
But before it’s over Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” exhibits a humanist’s love of its characters. It’s the perfect Christmas movie for people who hate Christmas movies.
David Hemingson’s witty and ultimately moving screenplay unfolds over the holidays in 1970 at the Barton Academy, one of those posh New England prep schools where the rich send their errant and spoiled sons for an education in the classics and character building.
Despite a fabulous reputation, Barton achieves neither of those objectives. It’s basically a holding facility for entitled idiots, a fact all too obvious to Paul Hunham (Paul Giomatti), who has taught ancient history for 40 years to bored young adolescents he dismisses as hormonal Visigoths.
On this particular snowbound Christmas, the unmarried and spectacularly grumpy Hunham has been saddled with “holdover” duty. He’s must oversee a handful of students who will remain on campus until classes resume in the New Year.
Among these “holdovers” is the son of Mormons on missionary duty abroad, a Korean whose family can’t afford the plane ticket home, and a football Adonis has been banned from his family Christmas for refusing to cut his hair (the rebellious ‘60s have only just ended and the Vietnam War still rages).
And then there’s Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a smart kid with a chip on his shoulder the size of a manhole cover. At the last minute his recently-remarried mother informs Angus that she’s opted to dedicate her holidays to a delayed honeymoon. Surly teenage sons are not invited.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph
In addition to Hunham and his angry/disappointed/lonely young charges, we meet Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). who runs the school’s dining hall. Mary’s son Curtis grew up on the campus, studied there (free tuition for employees’ offspring) and, lacking the money for college, enlisted in the Army, dying in Vietnam.
It’s a setup rich with heart-tugging possibilities, all of which Payne and Hemingson avoid like the plague. The dialogue is sharp, bitter and often screamingly funny. The performances don’t beg our sympathy; quite the contrary, this is a prickly bunch of angry individuals. Unlikeable, even.
Yet over the film’s two-hour-plus running time (it actually seems much shorter) “The Holdovers” finds ways to reveal its characters’ pain, yearnings and fears without ever drifting into mushy territory. The approach is astringent, clear-eyed and sardonic.
If you’re not careful it can break your heart.
Here’s a prediction: Expect Giamatti to land an Oscar nomination for best actor; Randolph and Sessa should score in the supporting categories.
In the meantime, watch “The Holdovers” with someone you love. Better still, watch it with someone you’re not so sure about.
| Robert W.Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 