I wanted to review ”The Holdovers” (2023) because it seems easy to overlook one of 2023’s smaller films. However, reuniting actor Paul Giamatti and director Alexander Payneagain, the team behind “Sideways” (2004), makes “The Holdovers” worth watching.
”The Holdovers” is a film about those left behind — a teacher, the head cook and a small group of students who have to stay over as “holdovers” during the winter break at a small private all-boys high school.
The setting is a small snowy New England town framed by the intentional uses of cinematography reflecting the era of the Vietnam War era to really reinforce the authenticity to the viewer.
The looming war establishes why there is tension in the young men about performing well enough in school. Having to face that existential threat of being too young to be men, but too old to still be children, weighs on them.
The head cook, Mary Lamb, (played by a determined Da’Vine Joy Randolph) stands as an example of the student’s fear, having just lost her son. Mary’s son had attended the school, but died a world away despite his hardworking studies — a young black man with no opportunity to be protected by continuing his studies in a college after graduation.
The main character is Paul Hunham, an ornery classics professor, played by Paul Giamatti. Paul faces the scorn of his peers, and the contempt of his students and his own poor disposition, making it hard to have sympathy for him.
After one of the student’s wealthy parents comes to pick up most of the boy with a private helicopter landing on the campus quad, they leave one student, who is unable to reach his parents for permission, the forlorn AngusTully (Dominic Sessa). Angus is left alone in Mary and Paul’s care. The cast shrinks in focus.
A relative quiet falls as we watch Mary still mourning. Angus, left unattended by his parents, is afraid of his future. Paul left to mind his singular ward. We stay with these characters, in this temporary break from their normal pattern of formality and uniform, in a transitional space between semesters.
At one point, Paul finds Mary watching some era-appropriate trash televsion, “The Marriage Game,” leading them to talk about their past lives, and long ago not-meant-to-be relationships. Paul tells Mary’s that her son was a good student. Unfazed by the compliment, Mary responds that her son “had always hated your classes.”
Because there is no point in being offended, Paul simply looks at Mary and the two smile.This film offes many moments like this type of realistic discomfort and simple companionship.
They change, in ways large and small. Mary takes time to heal from her loss, seeking out her family. Angus faces his fears of the future, dwelling on what he has left in his past. Paul, though stuck in his ways, looks past his self-focused personality, making a choice greater than his wants and needs.
“The Holdovers” is a surprisingly bittersweet and humane narrative of life’s smaller moments, delivered by the cast’s masterful acting. The film is well worth the 108 awards it has won at this writing.