The Holdovers is a coming of age and coming to terms film with powerful performances and an emotional script. Funny, tearful, and up-lifting. Paul Giamatti leads The Holdovers full speed into the movie award season.
From acclaimed director Alexander Payne, THE HOLDOVERS follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).
The Holdovers is a reminder that at the heart of any memorable movie is the simple combination of writing and acting. No fancy distractions or over the top effects. Are those other films fun to watch? Absolutely! But in my humble opinion these are a whole lot harder to perfect.
Alexander Payne directs David Hemingson’s script and allows his talented cast to organically flesh out conversations and emotional interactions. The plot of the story is not ground breaking. It is Christmas break at a boys prep school. Some students have no where to go so one teacher is tasked with staying back to watch over them. Without fantastic, unforced conversations this film would have nothing to stand on. But Payne trusts Randolph, Sessa, and Giamatti to take hold of the characters and nail every minute.
Three actors and for me three expected award nominations. There is no weak link. Are there slower moments? Sure. A few times I felt as if they straddled the fence of simply trying to flex emotion. But just when you think it is too much, they quickly pull back.
It is safe to say that the second half of the film is stronger than the first. Plenty of set up at the beginning that pays off hugely through the end. Paul Giamatti has the biggest character arc with what I think is the performance of his career.
Set at Christmas this film will be revisited each year in our home. But honestly it will hit the same in any season. THE HOLDOVERS is rated R for language, some drug use and brief sexual material
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