I’m not going to lie to you and say that I had my heart set on watching this film one iota.
Truthfully, I’ve seen the trailer for weeks and thought I had a pretty good grasp of what to expect from “The Holdovers.”
But, I can say that despite the story dragging on for too long, I was wrong about my initial assumptions and it wasn’t all that bad.
The Holdovers is a Christmas comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne, written by David Hemingson in his feature writing debut.
Set during the holiday season in 1970-1971, it stars Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston, Naheem Garcia, and Andrew Garman.
The film is rated R for language, some drug use, and brief sexual material and is 133 minutes long.
In December 1970, Paul Hunham (Giamatti) was an authoritarian classics professor at Barton Academy, a New England boarding school that he once attended on scholarship.
His students and fellow teachers despise him for his brutally honest grading and difficult personality.
Barton's headmaster Henry Woodrup (Garman) scolds Hunham for having cost the academy an important donor by giving the donor's son a failing grade, which led to the donor's son being rejected from Princeton University.
As punishment, Hunham is forced to supervise the handful of "holdover" students left on campus for the holidays, including Angus Tully (Sessa), whose mother abruptly canceled a family trip to Saint Kitts to honeymoon with her new husband.
Also staying behind is cafeteria administrator Mary Lamb (Randolph), who is grieving the loss of her son, a Barton alumnus killed serving in the Vietnam War.
To their chagrin, Hunham imposes studying and exercise on the holdovers' break.
After six days, the wealthy father of one of them arrives by helicopter and agrees to take all the students on the family's ski trip.
Angus, unable to reach his parents for permission, is left alone at Barton with Hunham and Mary.
When Hunham catches Angus trying to arrange a hotel room, Angus runs through the school halls while Hunham chases him.
Angus defiantly leaps into a pile of gym equipment, dislocating his shoulder.
At the hospital, Angus lies to protect Hunham from blame.
Hunham later flirts with Lydia Crane (Preston), the assistant to the headmaster, after he and Angus encounter her at a restaurant, and she invites the pair to her Christmas Eve party.
On Christmas Eve, Angus, Hunham, Mary, and Barton's janitor Danny (Garcia), attend Lydia's party.
While Angus spends time with Lydia's niece, Elise, Hunham is disappointed to discover that Lydia has a boyfriend, and Mary gets drunk and has an emotional breakdown over her son's death.
Hunham insists on leaving early to get Mary home much to Angus’ complaint.
While arguing with Hunham, Angus angrily shouts that his father is dead, causing Mary to lambast Hunham for his unsympathetic approach.
Still, there’s more to the film that showcases Hunham and Angus’ growth by learning from each other and creating a much friendlier bond.
There’s an interesting twist that follows Hunham’s new resolve to make Angus’ stay at the campus less depressing but you’ll just have to catch it yourself – it’s streaming on Peacock right now.
