Left Behind, but Not Alone on Christmas

Dominic Sessa, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and
Paul Giamatti in "The Holdovers"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

When it comes to Christmas movies that focus on family, those stories are mainly about the characters trying to get along with each other during the time of year when they’re all together for a festive season.  There’s some animosity amongst them, and their holiday together may include arguments and pratfalls, but everyone soon overcomes their differences as they settle in for Christmas Day.

However, we get something different in terms of the subject of family and the holidays with director Alexander Payne’s comedy-drama, “The Holdovers.”  With it being six years since his last film, the underwhelming “Downsizing,” we now have a film with heart, humor, and endearing characters, making this a movie that deserves to be evaluated as a Christmas classic somewhere down the road.

In 1970, Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is a classics teacher at a New England boarding school.  With the school getting ready to let out for a two-week Christmas break, it’s Paul’s turn to watch over the students who don’t have anywhere to go, one of whom is Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa).  While stuck there, Paul, the students, and a good-hearted cafeteria worker, Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), try to get by with as little tension as possible.

Giamatti, who stared in Payne’s 2004 film, “Sideways,” offers a humorous performance as the never-stray-from-the-rulebook teacher who doesn’t hold back opinions when it comes to dealing with his students.  However, he also has a way about him that shows the tough-love that he has for them, the kind of caring, teacherly persona where you understand where he’s coming from.  Giamatti doesn’t present the character as unloving, but as someone who values hard work and doesn’t have time for rule breaking or laziness.  But, once he opens up and begins seeing things on Angus’ level, it becomes a performance of great empathy as Giamatti realizes what Angus is going through and tries to understand him.  When this part of Paul’s character begins to bloom, it’s the start of an emotional evolution from the strict disciplinarian that we saw at the beginning.

Sessa, in his breakout role, gives a performance of terrific depth as a teenager who tries to handle his loneliness with humor and putting people in their place when they deserve it.  The complete opposite of Paul, Sessa shows his character’s exuberance as he tries to do what he wants to do, even when it’s against the rules, and often shows an intelligence that Paul tends to neglect.  Sessa delivers a natural, schoolboy charisma throughout the film, but it’s the drama in his character that we see later on that shows the issues hidden behind his carefree veneer.  It’s later on where we get a deeper reasoning of the rebelliousness that Angus displays, and Sessa shows a wonderful sense of someone wanting to be trusted as the adult that he’s becoming.

Randolph gives a poignant performance as an individual who’s suffering the recent death of her son in the Vietnam War.  While her character has doses of wit here and there, Randolph excels in showing the sense of loss that her character experiences.  Whenever Randolph’s on screen, you feel a pang in your heart because of how much she draws you in with her kindliness and soft sense of melancholy as Mary tries to make it through the toughest time in her life.  Randolph gives us a character who hasn’t had it easy, but does what she can day after day to maintain a strength that you sense pulsing through her in each of her scenes.

The screenplay by David Hemingson crafts a narrative that’ll have you going between laughs and tears.  He takes a story that focuses on three people who are going through different circumstances and paints those individuals as very genuine characters that explores loss, loneliness, unrealized dreams, and what it means to find common ground in those with whom you don’t have anything in common.  Hemingson examines all of these themes in beautiful detail, never making it feel like the sense of focus is overcrowded, but instead making it all connect in a meaningful way that has you feel like you could spend hours with this trio.  He examines these three characters not just with how they interact with each other, but with how they converse with other people when they’re separated during certain scenes.  By doing it these two ways, the narrative opens the characters’ emotional arcs even further as we get to know more about them between what they share with each other and what they share with other people.

With movies like “The Descendants,” “Nebraska,” and now “The Holdovers,” Payne has a talent for handling stories about families.  He brings out a mix of comedy and warmth in this type of narrative, presenting these families with a terrific sense of realness that makes these films engaging to watch.  In terms of visuals, Payne offers rich detail of the time period in such a way that doesn’t call attention to itself, but it still gives you a feel for the time and place, and it’s all paired with wonderful cinematography by Eigil Bryld.  Aside from the period detail, Payne and Bryld provide imagery of the New England area in such a way that lets you get to know the area, both on and off the school grounds.  It allows for a true feeling of spacial exploration as the characters take us around the school, and then as the main trio goes off campus and spends time with each other and with other people.

As a way to get into the Christmas season, “The Holdovers” will help make this time of year as warm as any beautifully decorated house. 

Grade: A