The Holdovers

The Holdovers is perfect at all the things that can either make or break a period dramedy. 

First, the cast inhabits every character. Paul Giamatti is great, as always, but he’s also the only guy in Hollywood who could make you care about a grumpy, lonely, mean professor at an elite boarding school. 

Giamatti has done it all in his singular acting career including being the lead in a hit rom com, investing the founding father John Adams with fire and humanity and being the face of a cable network (Showtime) with Billions. 

Giamatti’s Paul Hunham is up there with his greatest roles. 

Hunham is lonely, sad and despairing at the future of America. He is, of course, a teacher. 

In 1970 he is ordered to remain at the school over Christmas break so that he can watch the students who will not be going home for the holidays. It’s clear that he would have been there anyway, the movie gives Hunham no family. Hunham isn’t broken up about his aloneness, he has his books and he has his apartment on campus and what else does a man of his intellect need? 

Over the course of two weeks Hunham forges a bond with one of his students, Angus, played by newcomer Dominic Sessa and the school’s grieving head cook, Mary Lamb, played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph. 

Lamb lost her son in Vietnam and the war and the draft hangs over everyone and integral to the plot. Angus is an angry kid who faces military academy and the draft if he gets thrown out of another school. 

The ultimate source of his anger and fear and explored along with Lamb’s grief and Hunham’s decisions to wall himself away in a boarding school. 

The movie is funny but never sacrifices the realism of its characters for a joke. It feels like we just settled in to watch these lives for a few days and then we are sent on our way. 

There is high drama, to be sure, and fun but it all feels grounded and realistic. There is the whiff of a romance for Hunham and the movie handles it so well I found myself just nodding in agreement. When it’s resolved I said to myself, ‘yes, this is what it would be like, exactly right.’

Or consider that one supporting character is having what he calls a battle of wills with his father. Near the end of the movie we see who won, and we can guess why, but it is a reward for those of you who are paying attention. The movie does not call anymore attention to it than is necessary. 

There is, ultimately, a crossroads for the main characters and a satisfying conclusion to the story. I felt a little better about the world when it was over and whether it’s 1970 or 2023 that really is saying something. 

This is one of the best movies of the year.