Schools Not Out

The Holdovers sees director Alexander Payne re-team with star Paul Giamatti some nineteen years on from Sideways. It was worth the wait.

Set in 1970, Giamatti plays cantankerous private school teacher Paul Hunham. Prickly and isolated, Hunham's only real joy in life is dropping the hammer on the college dreams of privileged brats so when he is left in charge of the children stuck in school over Christmas neither he or said kids are best pleased. The film focuses on his relationship with pupil Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a wayward teen one exclusion away from military school and a likely trip to Vietnam. Also staying over is Mary (an astonishing performance from Da'Vine Joy Randolph) the head cook facing her first Christmas since the death of her son.

What follows is very much the story you would expect, enemies learning to understand and respect each other and lost people helping each other find their way. While you may have seen this this before, seldom has it been done with this much craft and quality. Sentimentality and schmaltz are out, observation and believability are in. That's not to say it doesn't deliver on emotion, its just that rather than clumsily trying to stab you with feeling The Holdovers gently warms you over the course of two hours. In addition to being set at the start of the seventies, the film is very much a love letter to the classics of that era and Payne has created something able to stand alongside the best that decade had to offer.

The cast are set up for success with a great script, meticulous cinematography and a wonderfully understated score but the performances they put in elevate the film to glorious heights. Sessa imbues the rebellious Tully with enough charm that we instantly know he's a good kid at heart and enough steel that he never becomes a TV movie of the week sap when opening up. Randolph is heartbreaking as Mary, stoically managing her grief as she continues on in the job she took to get her now deceased son a good education. Its massive credit to both their performances that they effortlessly hang with a masterclass from Giamatti. He relishes playing the the lazy eyed, bad smelling (due to a medical condition) Hunham as an educational Ebenezer Scrooge but even more so in showing his humanity, the old teacher has reason to resent the privileged and hold steadfast to the standards his former headmaster and boss instilled in him and the excellent performance means he is never in danger of coming across as a one note curmudgeon. Giamatti's performance constantly hints at the person underneath and its a joy watching Angus and Mary slowly bring him back to the world.

The Holdovers is a funny, sharp and heartwarming tale of a connection and moving forward that also plays as a darn good Christmas movie. Hopefully Payne and Giamatti don't wait this long to work together again.

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