Christmas: The Holdovers (2023)

An early 1970s setting, a cozy boarding school over Christmas, snowfall and talk of classical civilizations, Cat Stevens songs and cinematography that recreates film grain. The Holdovers has all the hallmarks of a film made for me. That is, aside from the fact that it’s made by Alexander Payne, a filmmaker who has never made a film I’ve loved. Payne has made some good films, namely Sideways (also starring Paul Giamatti) and Election, but even those films are held back by something approaching contempt for his characters. Well, I now have to amend my thoughts as The Holdovers bowled me over. It’s a small film, but not slight, moving, but not sentimental, and like a Hal Ashby picture made in 2023 without the 1970s style or characterizations or structure feeling like a gimmick. And most crucially, it is deeply invested in the characters at its centre.

The story takes place at a New England boarding school over the Christmas break in 1970. Paul Giamatti’s Paul Hunham is the Classics teacher and he’s tasked with staying on campus over the break to chaperone the few students who aren’t going home for Christmas. He’s an old-fashioned taskmaster, a curmudgeon, but a man of principles. Others hate him and he wears that hate as a badge of honour, happy to put some of these rich kids through the ringer before legacy admissions to Ivy League colleges and the wealth of their parents guarantee their unearned success in life.

This is a role tailor-made for Giamatti, who relishes Paul’s archaic phrasing, angry outbursts, and cantankerous demeanour. Giamatti has a talent for comic timing, especially in the midst of loud fits of anger; his ability to get out a pithy phrase at just the right moment is remarkable, as is his ability to underplay some of the coarsest comments in the film. Paul’s a crank and Giamatti loves playing cranks, so he plays Paul as a man who knows what he is and isn’t afraid to hide it, which makes even his best students hate him.

One of those students is Angus Tully, played by newcomer Dominic Sessa, who’s the only kid with a decent grade in Paul’s Classics course, even if he doesn’t fancy himself a student of history. Angus is one of the “holdovers” during Christmas break, and after an unforeseen arrival, he becomes the only kid in Paul’s care. The relationship between Paul and Angus is the heart of the film, as both teacher and pupil come to learn a lot about each other and see their own impulses, intelligences, and annoyances reflected in the other.

Sessa is exceptional in the role. In some scenes, he has a quick tongue, able to play off the other performers and rattle off some cutting phrases without even a hint of self-consciousness, which is rare in young performers. In others, he demonstrates a surprising gentleness, such as when he comforts a younger student after he wets the bed in the middle of the night. But Sessa is best when his anger and sadness collide in a single moment and are channelled at Giamatti, who is experiencing something similar. This way, both performers are able to play off the other, reflect each other’s emotions, and come to an emotional conclusion at the same time. It’s quite remarkable to witness, whether it’s in the midst of a chase down the halls of the boarding school or a heartfelt moment in a frigid car.

Of course, Paul and Angus aren’t alone in their time over the holidays. There’s also Mary Lamb, played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph, the black head cook, who’s still grieving the loss of her son, a former student of the school who couldn’t afford college and so went to Vietnam to earn an education through Army admissions. Unfortunately, her son died and she was left working in the halls where he once ate, scared to leave as if quitting would be abandoning his ghost. Mary is the quietest of the characters and Randolph underplays her, avoiding the wise black person stereotype in the process. She drinks a bit too much, is a little disgusted with the rich white boys she caters to each day, but she’s not prone to witticisms or unexpected moments of sage advice

Despite being a supporting character in the film, she’s too consumed by her own grief to play as just an adjunct for one of the other character’s stories. And her own story is treated with the same care as Paul’s and Angus’s, even if it doesn’t get as much screen time. For instance, a scene with a pair of baby shoes is one of the most moving moments I’ve seen in a film in several years. It’s the kind of visual storytelling that captures the emotional journey of a character in such a profound way that you could never imagine the film without it. It’s quiet, peaceful, emotional, somewhat expected, but no less impactful for it, much like the film itself. It’s also proof of how The Holdovers abounds with grace, which is something I never thought I’d find in an Alexander Payne movie. Perhaps this has something to do with The Holdovers embodying the essence of the secular Christmas movie so well.

The secular Christmas film is about change and forgiveness and reestablishing bonds with family. The Holdovers centres on characters who don’t have families (Paul and Mary), or who don’t have supportive families (Angus), and who create a makeshift family over this lonely Christmas. Paul is also something of a Scrooge, a good man made bitter and angry at the world, and this journey he goes on with Angus and Mary restores some of the generous spirit that used to animate him before the world broke him down. These characteristics are secular Christmas movie tropes, but they work here because of the specificity of the drama, characterizations, and performances. The broad strokes of the film might be familiar, but in the moment, the film is surprising and authentic.

Perhaps I’m off the mark and The Holdovers is more crassly sentimental than I credit it for being, or that it was simply the kind of human film I needed at this particularly trying time in my life. Or perhaps Alexander Payne has finally learned to avoid judging his characters and instead follow their story with patience and curiosity and the profound sympathy needed in great movies of this sort. The Holdovers earns its comparisons to Hal Ashby films like The Last Detail and Harold and Maude that it so desperately wants to be. It’s a movie about real people with a keen eye for the time and place where we're best able to get to know these individuals and truly witness their growth.

9 out of 10

The Holdovers (2023, USA)

Directed by Alexander Payne; written by David Hemingson; starring Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston.

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