Review by C.J. Bunce
My admiration for the acting prowess of character actor Paul Giamatti goes back to roles in Donnie Brasco, The Truman Show, American Spendor, Paycheck, The Illusionist, Lady in the Water, and TV series appearances in shows like Homicide and Lodge 49. Count his Academy Award-nominated performance in the Academy Award nominee for best film of 2023 The Holdovers, now streaming on Peacock, in the realm of his dramatic tour de force, American Splendor. The Holdovers isn’t a true story like that movie, but it similarly dramaticizes serious real-world issues. It’s billed as a comedy Christmas drama, when it really is strictly drama that happens to take place at the holidays–you wouldn’t call it a “Christmas movie” because it is a major downer, a slow and depressing journey over more than two hours.
Any humor is there to cut the edge of the sad state of its three lead characters: Giamatti, who is a by-the-book New England classics teacher in a private school in 1970 called Barton, a man who has an eye that drifts and a body odor problem; Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Dolemite is My Name, The Lost City)–in her Academy Award-winning role–plays Mary Lamb, a cafeteria cook at the school whose son just died after being drafted into the Vietnam War; and the movie introduces Dominic Sessa in his first movie role as Angus Tully, a student with attitude and personal issues who is left to stay at the school over Christmas break. It’s a film for coming of age movie genre completists. But it also is as close as you could ever find to a perfect pairing with Dead Poets Society.
I dodged The Holdovers for a year despite it being a Giamatti movie because it was directed by Alexander Payne, who had directed Giamatti in Sideways, one of the most boring and disappointing movies I’ve ever seen. Fortunately this time Payne delivered a period piece that looks like it was filmed with 1970s technology thanks to Danish cinematographer Eigil Bryld (In Bruges), with all the elements that could trick anyone into thinking it was released in 1971. The Oscar-nominated screenplay by David Hemingson (Whiskey Cavalier) matches the beats of Dead Poets Society, from the private school to the small group of disenfranchised kids to a teacher trying to communicate something to students (boys only, again) when the kids could care less–Giamatti is not there to inspire but his performance is far meatier than Robin Williams’. The dull, nagging weight on the audience is in not knowing what shoe is going to drop this time to echo the suicide of Robert Sean Leonard’s character.
The story of a group of sad people at the holidays that diminishes to only three sad people (which is even more sad) has strange echoes of The Shining, even beyond the snow, being trapped, the limited food choices, and waiting for someone to snap. It also ticks the coming of age trope boxes, except it lacks fun and laughs. It’s more a reminder of all the bad that life can offer, multiplied by three. Yet Randolph is almost angelic as the mother bearing the worst of all situations, and she earned that Oscar. Giamatti is like so many teachers everyone has known, never to be saluted or praised for their contributions to the world. And Angus is like so many teens trying to make their way through their childhood without optimum family help or role models. It’s no less depressing that as likely as the events could have happened in 1970-1971 they could also happen in 2024-2025.
Blink and you’ll probably overlook Tate Donovan as Angus’s evil stepfather. But one of the breaths of fresh air is Carrie Preston as a school administrative worker. Most only know her as the unique titular star of Elsbeth, and it’s nice to see she can play it straight. The best scene is one of those family dinners made up of people who aren’t actually related–like that in the movie Logan. When a waitress on an outing to Boston refuses to bring cherries jubilee to the table because Angus is underage, Giamatti’s teacher steps out of his shell and lets her have it from all of us. Why can’t people treat others with respect? Giamatti’s teacher is a hero because he won’t let wealthy donors buy their kids’ easy pathways to college. Randolph’s character is a heroine because she is able to move forward after a great loss. And the kid–we just don’t know yet.
Did we ask for a missing double feature pairing for Dead Poets Society? Maybe not. But if that’s your thing, it’s waiting there for you now. The Holdovers is now streaming on Peacock.
