‘The Holdovers’ Review: Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph Warm Our Hearts In Alexander Payne’s Latest Film
(L-R) Dominic Sessa stars as Angus Tully, Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb in director Alexander Payne’s THE HOLDOVERS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Seacia Pavao / © 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
Set in a freezing winter break in New England in 1970, Alexander Payne‘s The Holdovers is the perfect example of those movies they don’t make anymore — think of Christophe Barratier’s Les Choristes (The Chorus) or Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society, but starring a grumpy Paul Giamatti trying to teach a bunch of young adults he assumes are whiney and spoiled the same history lessons that didn’t get him that as far in life as he once expected. The film’s warm atmosphere and the way it’s able to make us reflect on our own decisions and the way we treat other people are just the scratch of the surface of what Payne is able to master here.
Giamatti is the star here, giving one of those performances in which he no longer is playing a character, he becomes him. It’s not a particularly showy performance, but the true range of what he can accomplish as an actor is put on display here. Rather than big crying scenes or flashy speeches, he perfectly goes under the skin of Paul Hunham, creating both a recognizable silhouette and also a signature posture and mannerisms. What’s more, in a true reflection of David Hemingson‘s writing, the character by the end of the film is hardly recognizable when compared to the character we meet at the beginning — completing a great character arc for him.
Mr. Hunham teaches Fallen Civilizations at the private school of Barton Academy, where rich families write their checks into glowing grades and letters of recommendation that can later get their kids into Cornell or Brown. But not in Mr. Hunham’s class — the grumpy and highly disliked by students and faculty alike even got into minor trouble after giving an F to the overindulged child of a US senator. The repercussion? He must stay at the school for the winter break watching over the kids who couldn’t make it home for Christmas. However, it’s not like he has a lot of other places to be, and though he may not admit this is his idea of a good time, he will soon realize he would have even less company under any other circumstances.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph stars as Mary Lamb, Dominic Sessa as Angus Tully and Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham in director Alexander Payne’s THE HOLDOVERS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Seacia Pavao / © 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
The ice will soon begin to melt after all the kids are brought home except for one (by the way, under very plot-armored circumstances; but that’s neither here nor there). This is Angus Tully, wonderfully played by debutant Dominic Sessa; he’s been left behind by his mother, who thought this would be the best time to finally enjoy her honeymoon period with her new husband, six months after they got married. Angus and his father are now a distant memory to her, and the kid spends most of the film coming to terms with that situation. And Mr. Hunham, who wholeheartedly believes no kid could ever be more miserable or had it nearly as hard as he’s had it, is no help either. Used to every student in his class being an entitled brat who has always had it easy, he can’t fathom a world in which a 16-year-old kid is not there to cause trouble.
Besides Giamatti, though, the film’s best performance is given by Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who plays Mary, perhaps the character with the most heartbreaking story of all. After losing his fiancée a few months into her pregnancy years ago, she is now trying to keep it together during the first Christmas since her son passed away in combat. Her company? A grumpy teacher who is kind to her but who spends most of his time fighting with the students, and a teenager who can’t believe his bad luck. None of them really knows what to do about her, and the subject is barely brought up. But Mary keeps her head down and looks for another reason to wake up the next day while she keeps making very little money working in the kitchen of an expensive school filled with entitled and spoiled little brats who would not look at her twice if they had the chance to.
It takes a while for The Holdovers to start to feel like something truly special, as Payne’s direction and Hemingson’s script take their time building the setting and carefully placing the characters in specific situations where the viewer starts to get an idea that there is more than meets the eye, yet decline to reveal all of their cards yet. By the end, we have a true understanding of where everyone came from and where they are all going, and the slow crescendo that up until then felt like the most depressing Christmas ever felt all the more satisfying.
Dominic Sessa stars as Angus Tully and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb in director Alexander Payne’s THE HOLDOVERS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Seacia Pavao / © 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
It’s not a new formula that the film is exploring, and though the general strokes are telegraphed, the devil is in the details, and the warmth of the film resides in staying with these characters in sickness and in health. By the time the third act arrives, we’re as disappointed as Mr. Hunham whenever Angus gets into trouble, yet equally as heartbroken when he finally opens up about his own life. And the same goes for the young kid when the disgruntled and slightly drunk teacher finally admits why he can’t move on with his own life. As carefully constructed by the script, their arcs mirror each other — but that’s made all the more beautiful by the fact that Mary’s is so different to them. There’s no opening up for her; she’s just looking for the chance to be able to grieve her son in peace.
The aesthetic presented by Eigil Bryld’s cinematography and Ryan Warren Smith’s production design, which perfectly set a unique tone for the film, may seem cold and even period-piece-like for 2023, but we soon realize that they re-emphasize the themes and ideas of the script. The true magic of the film, however, resides in its simple and austere way of telling a story. In the end, it’s all about human beings talking to each other and going through life together, as the walls they built around themselves start to fall down. The less their gates open up, the higher those walls get and the more complicated it is for the rest of us to break them.
The Holdovers is currently available in theaters and on PVOD in the US and will open in more markets next year.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
