Review: Alexander Payne’s ‘The Holdovers’ is a Seasonal Treat
The Holdovers might be the most unsentimental holiday movie in recent memory. That’s not surprising, since director Alexander Payne goes to great lengths to avoid cheap emotion. From Election to About Schmidt, the Nebraska-born filmmaker specializes in depicting sad sacks with an absurdist’s sensibility. It’s a deceptively simple balancing act that’s been attempted by many and accomplished by few; Noah Baumbach comes close. In his latest film, Payne foregoes some of his trademark cynicism and goes straight for the heart, resulting in a touching seasonal film for people who aren’t that jazzed about the holidays.
Welcome to Barton Academy, a boys’ boarding school located in the snowy outback of New Hampshire. We’ve seen similar schools in movies such as School Ties and The Emperor’s Club, institutions that instill outdated codes while priding themselves on their academic prowess. But even with this stifling atmosphere, there’s always something charmingly antiquated about these schools. Everywhere you look, snow covers gray buildings while the campus stretches for miles. In the courtyards, students in ties and blazers sprint to their classes as if their lives depended on it, which they basically do. Within these frozen walls you’ll find Professor Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), a harried teacher of Ancient Civilizations.
Although the film takes place during the groovy Early-Seventies, Mr. Hunham missed the boat on that peace and love fad. There’s nothing peaceful or loveable about this guy. He’s a juggernaut of an instructor who marches into his class like a bull, slandering his long-haired students with terms like “vulgar philistines” and “cretins” before handing out their essays marked with D’s and F’s. “I can tell by your faces that many of you are shocked at the outcome,” he smirks. “I, on the other hand, am not, because I had the misfortune of teaching you this semester.” If you were expecting Robin Williams’s Mr. Keating, from Dead Poets Society, a harlequin who inspires his students with poetry and benevolence, you walked into the wrong classroom.
Even as the characters disintegrate into their personal agonies, they create an unusual alliance.
Mr. Hunham, or Paul, is a permanent fixture at Barton. A former student himself, he left for a quick stint in college before returning to teach the history of the Greeks and Romans. He might have a loud bark, but behind his coarse pedagogical exterior lives a scared little man who drinks himself to sleep every night, never leaves town, and smells like fish due to an unusual “skin condition.” The students relentlessly make fun of his boozy demeanor and lazy eye, which remains frozen in its socket while the other roams freely. Nobody seems to like him, including the school’s headmaster, who orders him to chaperone a group of kids over winter break. Known as “holdovers,” this group of unfortunates have either been forgotten by their families or punished by being made to stay at school over the holidays. Paul reluctantly takes the assignment, realizing he has nothing else to do anyway.
Eventually, most of them are rescued by one of their rich parents, leaving Paul alone with the school cook, Mary Lamb (a wonderful Da’Vine Joy Randolph), a sorrowful woman who just lost her son in Vietnam, and Angus Tully (newcomer Dominic Sessa), a forlorn student with the disposition of Edgar Allan Poe. Angus might be one of the smartest students at Barton, but he’s also one of the most irritable, annoyed with everything in his purview, especially his Ancient Civilizations instructor, and Angus and Paul butt heads like a mismatched father and son. Discovered by Payne at the drama school of Deerfield Academy, in Massachusetts, Sessa plays Tully with an incredible aptitude, especially for a first-timer. His performance is a combination of sullen introspection and teenage angst ripped right out of a J. D. Salinger novel.
Sequestered on the empty and gloomy campus, Paul, Mary, and Angus are forced to spend the holiday together. In another movie, we’d roll our eyes at the “opposites attract” scenario, but Payne avoids the sentiment, even though it’s embedded in the story itself. It’s quite a feat. He’s able to do so primarily by focusing on his characters and not on their trajectories (which is probably why he likes close-ups so much). David Hemingson’s script spends too much time with supporting characters who end up disappearing after the first act (in hindsight, the time spent on them is pointless), but once the principal players come together, the movie finds its voice.
Eventually, these three lost souls take several trips together, including to an awkward Christmas party hosted by a coworker (Carrie Preston) and on a tour of Boston. At this point the movie becomes a road picture, of sorts, a genre Payne dipped into in Sideways and About Schmidt. Even as they disintegrate into their personal agonies, they create an unusual alliance. Shot on 35mm film, cinematographer Eigil Bryld casts everything with a pallid softness and grainy hue reminiscent of romances from the ’70s, in films like Ice Castles and Jeremy. There are also some great needle drops by Cat Stevens and the Allman Brothers.
It’s strange that the Vietnam War doesn’t play a larger role. The war was at its apex during this time period, and you’d expect there to be another layer of sadness running through the narrative. There are also too many silly cracks about Paul’s physical deficiencies, which feels awkward in a movie that’s going for something deeper than screwball antics. But these are small complaints for a movie that wears its heart on its sleeve. Payne pulls back on his ’90s-tinged cynicism and plays it straight. More than his other films, this one feels like a love letter to directors such as Hal Ashby and Bob Rafelson, who deconstructed characters whose intense loneliness mirrored the country’s. This movie does the same, for today.
But what truly gives this magical little film its vitality is Paul Giamatti. Reuniting with Payne after 2004’s Sideways, Giamatti imbues Paul Hunham with a nobility and sadness that’s both hilarious and multifaceted. He just pops when he’s onscreen. Straight up, this guy can act.
The Holdovers might be a little sullen for those who watch Hallmark movies every season, but I promise, once it ends, you’ll think about these people for days on end. Even on Christmas. ❖
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