One of my all-time favorite films is Sideways, directed by Alexander Payne. Now, almost 20 years later, Payne delivers The Holdovers– the perfect companion piece, even though the stories, settings and most of the cast are completely different.
What the two movies have in common is an excellent Paul Giamatti, doing world-class work in a similar vibe of being cantankerous on the outside and probably heartbroken on the inside. The result, as with Sideways, is a bittersweet, melancholy tale told with total naturalism and punching up the hard luck Giamatti’s character with some genuine laughs.
Set in the last weeks of 1970, Giamatti is a Western Civ-type teacher at a New England boarding school. The students are mostly entitled brats; the kids of Senators and socialites. They usually go home for the holidays and, indeed, most of them will have left early on in the story.
Which leaves just Giamatti’s character with one student to look after (low-key touching and funny Dominic Sessa). The only other people staying back in the now empty, snow-covered campus are the cafeteria cook/supervisor played by a wonderful Da’Vine Joy Randolph. A smart and kindly janitor pops up, too. That’s it-that’s the quartet of damaged souls who will spend the Christmas holidays of 1970 together.
Payne has given each character a backstory that would have been good enough for four one-act plays, but he meshes them together in a winning ensemble that gets our empathy honestly. I leave for you to discover these backstories and character idiosyncrasies, but you will soak up the great acting and revel in Payne’s originality- I mean, if he has stolen from anyone, it’s only from himself (like characters riding silently in a car while period appropriate instrumental music plays.)
I have watched it twice now and I will watch it again, just as I did with Licorice Pizza last year. Sometimes you just find yourself loving characters, even if they don’t love themselves.
The Holdovers | 4 out of 4 stars | Rated R for language and drug use | 2 hrs 15 min
