Based off of the time period, the visual presentation, and the tone present within the first few minutes of The Holdovers, I thought to myself ‘I bet there’s going to be a Cat Stevens song featured in this’. And sure enough, dropped into a third act trip to Boston, “The Wind” makes an appearance. It’s a notable needle-drop, one that I and certain some other cineastes would remember from Wes Anderson’s Rushmore -another movie about the curious relationship that develops between a teenage prep school student and a middle-aged authority figure against an atmospheric backdrop nostalgic for a sincere New Hollywood kind of coming-of-age story.
To be sure there’s a bit of early Wes Anderson influence to be found in Alexander Payne’s new movie, as much as your classic prep school dramas like School Ties or Dead Poets Society and the wistful Hal Ashby-esque 1970s sheen that he applies with liberality. It stands out among Payne’s filmography for this, it’s his first period film; and it’s also his first holiday film -something few directors of his stature make anymore. Structurally it is also a return to the basic after the complex and genre-heavy Downsizing (a movie I maintain is far more rich and interesting than its poor reception bears out), and it reunites Payne with Paul Giamatti for the first time since Sideways.
Their chemistry as director and actor is a big part of why this movie works -Sideways was indeed Giamatti’s best performance, and Payne seems to know just how to build a character to Giamatti’s strengths whilst not making him the walking one-note archetype of pompous intellectualism he could easily be pigeon-holed as. On paper (and indeed in the trailer) Giamatti’s Paul Hunham looks like any of several stuffy teacher characters you’d likely see as the villain in an 80s high school comedy. But there’s more personality and drama there for him to work with and even draw real pathos out of, whilst also playing to the fun tropes where necessary.
He is the classics professor at the elite private Barton College in northern Massachusetts, where he has been stationed pretty much since graduating there himself. Over the winter break of 1970 he is tasked with staying at the school to supervise the holdovers -students who can’t go home for the holidays. Among these is one particularly irate youth, after his mother made last minute plans with her new husband, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa). Staying over as well is the school’s cafeteria chief Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) who has no one left at home after her son was recently killed in Vietnam.
The premise is again deceptively simple, it plays out structurally quite how you think it would: the crusty professor and delinquent student learning to get along when forced together by circumstance. But there is an original richness to it, emanating in part off of its atmosphere in both the rustic New England setting and its 70s haze, which lights up and brings warmth through the whole movie. But it is also written with a nicely even blend of lightness and sincerity. The script by David Hemingson does occasionally play into easy jokes or situations, but it accentuates its more considered characters by contrast, teeing up a foundation of audience engagement for where it goes to in its most potentially saccharine places in the last act. Paul and Angus do abide by their archetypes; some of Paul’s dialogue and interactions feel ripped right out of Frasier -but the movie also establishes early on the sadness of his circumstance: still at the college where he got his degree now working under one of his former students. It’s compounded with the interesting details that he has an extremely cynical view of the nepotism the school so often engages in, and that he himself even came from a humbler background. Angus meanwhile is a smart kid, struggling against family and psychological issues that go beyond what he initially discloses.
That’s not to say there aren’t weak or tired spots to their characterizations. The movie generally strikes a good balance, but there are times the cartoon of Paul is undeniable. And at least a couple scenes exist simply to emphasize Angus’ innate goodness and empathy, in contrast to fellow holdover Teddy (Brady Hepner). But Giamatti and Sessa have a good, believable chemistry, the former fitting this character like a glove and the latter making a stark impression on what is seemingly his first movie. As far as where they are an unlikely trio though it’s Randolph who most steals the show as the proud, disciplined cook attempting to mask the depth of her grief. Of course it all comes out eventually, and when it does Randolph is utterly devastating.
Much of this movie is predictable, but there’s such heart to the way Payne illustrates it. And the holiday setting helps a lot too. There are perhaps too few truly melancholy Christmas movies that tap into the often bittersweet sadness of the season for so many people. I love how this movie illustrates it’s found family of the three holdovers (plus Danny the janitor, played by Naheem Garcia) watching the New Year’s countdown with both a sense of warmth in that company and a profound loneliness unique to each of them. It radiates a heartwarming sense of holiday spirit and also an intense sadness that each of these characters hides but is unable to truly quell. Paul’s life is quietly full of regrets and even a little shame, though curiously never as to his teaching methods –the more obvious arc this movie might have taken. In fact, for its various conventions, it is a movie that conspicuously evades some of the more obvious tropes. Confrontations may not be satisfying, love interests may not work out, and though teacher and student obviously bond it does not come through a standard dramatic structure. There is no great fight or vitriolic confrontation to spur a change in attitude, it evolves fairly organically. The biggest explosion in their tensions is one that is played purely for laughs.
And it is a good scene, the movie is often pretty funny in a sharp, sardonic fashion reminiscent of the comedies of Richard Linklater. The dialogue is very specifically pinpointed to time, place, character types, and even I’d venture personal experience. And of course like with Linklater, nostalgia informs a lot of the comedic rhythm and its appeal. The film is still perhaps too polished in its mimicry of 70s aesthetics, presenting an idealized atmosphere to some extent. It is a vision of the 1970s that could only be comfortably retrospective. But then, a certain amount of comfort suits this movie, which Payne uses to make the film’s sadder, complex avenues more palatable.
All that said, this movie doesn’t really have a strong, new message at its core. It’s not enlightening or profound. But it is beautifully evocative and charming, impeccably performed, genuinely sweet, and more intelligent and compelling than it lets on in the hands of a filmmaker like Payne. Holiday movies have a tendency towards replay, and while I don’t think The Holdovers has it in it to be a perennial classic, good new holiday movies of its calibre are rare.
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