‘The Holdovers’ — The Latest Christmas Crowd-Pleaser
Though not as polished as some of his best work, Alexander Payne’s lovely drama is certainly becoming a new holiday favorite
Someone (whose opinion I value highly) said to me the other day: "Stop convincing yourself that what you're doing is actually good for you. It's not." Full disclosure, this came up after I admitted that what I've been doing (and not doing) in my life recently ceased to make me feel satisfied and pushed me towards depression. I made myself so comfortable, risk-averse, and isolated from the outside world that I slowly lost perspective — of what is and what isn’t actually helping me move forward.
In Alexander Payne's latest prestige drama, The Holdovers, Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is in a similar mental state but at a much older age. As a bitter, cynical, and cranky teacher in a boarding school in the 1970s, he settled into a mundane life that no longer (if ever) satisfies him. He stopped aiming high. Even his "great" ambitions (like writing a book) became half ambitions (like writing a monograph). His character represents the kind of people who quit trying and accepted that this life is nothing but a sentence you need to finish. Essentially, Paul put himself in a mental jail on his own accord where the guards are his personal failures. He could leave — both the internal ennui and the school — at any time, but why bother? He’s comfortable and has everything to survive.
Now, Paul isn't the nicest man, either. He's hostile, extremely strict with his students, and full of unhealthy resentments. But he’s also smart enough to be aware of these flaws and how others perceive him. That said, when Angus (Dominic Sessa), one of his pupils he’s put in charge of babysitting during the winter break, tells him that every student and most of his colleagues hate him, Paul isn’t surprised one bit — but the hurt is all over his face. It’s a lot harder to hear the truth than think it. And yet, during these two weeks he has to spend with an insubordinate student and a grieving lunch lady (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) on an empty and freezing campus, Paul rediscovers empathy, the joy of companion, and a vague sense of purpose he thought was long gone from his heart.
The best way to describe Payne’s ninth feature is to say it’s remarkably ordinary. A quality that applies to most of his films (Sideways, About Schmidt, and Nebraska, in particular) that are warm, quiet, and inherently funny meditations about unexceptional people leading a simple life. This is something the indie director revels in and never tries to hide — in fact, every one of his features wears its honesty on its sleeve. There are no gimmicks in The Holdovers, and I might go as far as to say there aren’t any twists, either. David Hemingson’s script tells a straightforward story about three people struggling with their own circumstances and personal difficulties. They're unwanted, abandoned souls (in one way or another), craving connection and belonging, and they find it in a place where none of them thought would be possible. It’s the film’s most endearing aspect how these heart-stricken characters find their way to each other and slowly form an affectionate and supportive alliance.
The Holdovers’ most distinctive feature is how Payne uses old-fashioned aesthetics and 1970s music to create a seamless and unobtrusive nostalgia. The frames, the close-ups, the cuts, the wardrobe, and the language are all there to evoke and recall an obsolete, much simpler time, yet you barely notice them. Everything blends together without particularly seeking attention, allowing the characters to breathe and dominate while providing an apt setting to tell their story. This is certainly a feat that very few directors can recreate with such authenticity and skill, and one that compliments Hemingson’s screenplay to drive home its emotional beats that take their time to unfold.
It's fair to say that this approach doesn't always appeal to a broader audience, and the slightly overlong runtime here has the chance to put off some viewers who expect a little more eventful drama. But Payne might’ve hit the jackpot because The Holdovers seems to slowly become a new Christmas crowd-pleaser, resonating with more and more viewers as we shift towards the upcoming holidays. And though I don't think it's necessarily among the director's most polished works, I'm glad to see so many people respond to it with such warmth and adoration. If you ask me, the secret ingredient is Paul Giamatti's pitch-perfect performance and the invisible yet compelling nostalgia that brings out our most painful and cherished memories from those high school years buried under decades in our hearts. And the fact that the film’s moving ending delivers a hopeful and heartening closure about an old man finding a reason to change, which he previously deemed impossible, yeah, that helps a lot, too.
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