History teacher Paul Hunham must remain on campus over the Christmas holidays at a remote prep school with the holdover students, with just Angus Tully remaining after a few days and Mary Lamb the grieving cook for company, they are about to all find out that sometimes you just get thrown together with the people you really need in those moments.
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Set in 1970 into 1971, The Holdovers take an intimate look into how it can feel being totally alone over the Christmas/festive period. Barton Academy is a private school for boys only and prides itself on producing Barton men. Paul Hunham had attended the school as a youngster recieving a scholarship and allowed him to get away from his father.
Within the school nobody likes Hunham and are quite frankly horrible towards him, we can instantly see that when he is put in to cover the holdover job for another member of the faculty who has basically lied about his mother being very ill. The students also dislike him, because he demands excellence within the knowledge and will not just pass students, even when told to do so because their parents are rich and put money into the school.
Originally five students were part of the holdover group, but after a few days one of their parents arrives and manages to take three of the other boys with them after parental persmission. However, for Angus that was not to be the case when his mother away on a honeymoon with her new husband after abandoning him at the very last moment before the break. When then also have Mary Lamb, the cook at the school who opted to stay due to feeling alone since the death of her son in Vietnam he had attended Barton.
The start to this was very shaky with Hunham already hating on Tully who while a very bright student did have some issues with his behaviour, having already been kicked out of many schools and Barton was his last chance to avoid being sent to military school.
If we think about behavior and how people talk to others and act towards them, it usually will have something behind it and at its core. Past experiences and always being put down is certainly something that will destroy a person and make them rather unbearable towards others. Hunham with his physical apperance and lazy eye does make for an easy target and something he has had to deal with his whole life, hence why he has no family or anyone to spend time with over the festive period. Everything runs so much deeper than what he shows on the surface and having to spend this time with Tully could actually be the best possible outcome.
Again with Tully he appears to be a tough guy on the surface, as we see him in the opening scenes with his classmates not that he classes any of them as his friends though. He is dealing with some tough issues and the fact his own mother was quite happy just to leave him was quite devastating and something that really makes you feel sorry for him. Mary is full on with the grief over her son who had to join the military because she could not afford college for him and for that she had guilt. Turning to drink to ease the pain was clear to see as her loss hit breaking point.
When you think about the three characters all being at different ages and stages of their life they can still learn and help each other in all possible ways, I think that is an aspect of the film that is utterly fantastic because in spite of all the trauma and sadness they are facing they manage to find warmth and laughter against all of the odds.
“Well, let’s make the best of it, shall we?”
A line that is said quite early on during the film and quite frankly doesn’t it just sum up how we all feel about life the majority of the time, in situations that we would rather not be in and attempting to just get by. The mixture of the comedy within the film is really clever and feels very real, making us really link with the characters as we all feel sad sometimes.
Naturally in a film like this it requires top performances and we really do get that from Paul Giamatti who always goes all in for his roles but this one just hits on that next level. He has won many awards so far across awards season and has been nominated for an Oscar for his amazing efforts. Da’Vine Joy Randolph has been sweeping the best supporting actress award and with very good reason, her balance and showing the grief on screen really is fantastic. Dominic Sessa is a true joy as well, in his first ever screen role it is just remarkable how effortless it all seems for him. Working ever so brilliantly with Giamatti and in all honesty I cannot believe more hype hasn’t surrounded Sessa.
Overall it is a truly wonderful film that sends out the message of never truly giving up on having hope, depsite the depression setting in different ways for the characters they still manage to have that tiny pull of wanting more for their life. I can see this being an instant classic and relatable for so many people around the world.
