THE HOLDOVERS

US, 2023, 133 minutes, Colour.

Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da' Vine Joy Randolph, Carrie Preston.

Directed by Alexander Payne.

In the long ago good old days, students who didn’t go home for the holidays were described as “staying back”. The Staybackers doesn’t sound like a very good title for a movie. The American, Holdovers, sounds better.

The Holdovers has been nominated for many awards, Paul Giamatti winning a Best Actor Golden Globe, and, not surprisingly when we watch the film, Da’Vine Joy Randolph has won more than a dozen Best Supporting Actress awards.

The setting is 1970, one of those elite boys boarding schools, perhaps not too far from the school in Dead Poets Society. But, the boys we are to look at here have no great yen for learning, let alone poetry. And, the teacher we focus on, Paul Hunham, played with fascinating complexity by Paul Giamatti, might have shared the ideals of Robin Williams’ creative teaching, but has almost given up long since.

Perhaps a better comparison with teachers in the film world might be a Goodbye Mr Chips variation.

When we know that some of the students can’t go home for the Christmas break and that the obsequious Headmaster (currying favour with financial donors) asks Mr Hunham to be responsible for the holdovers, two weeks, we are not surprised at some of the turn of events. However, there really are some very surprising turns of events which keep us attentive, even to the ending.

The screenplay was written by David Hemingson who has had long experience writing for television. It is often slick, smart, sarcastic and ironic. But, at its core, there is heart. And direction is by Alexander Payne, a strong reputation with films like Sideways, The Descendants (and his high school drama about an ambitious young student clashing with her teacher, Election).

The thing is that Mr Hunham is a reclusive grump, a love for ancient civilisations and the ability to quote and refer to Roman and Greek characters. The students dislike him intensely. And, it would seem, he doesn’t like himself all that much. The main student, holdover, is Angus, played by Dominic Sessa, 17, surly, expelled from previous schools, abandoned for the holidays by his mother and her new husband. As expected, lots of clash.

The other principal character is the cook, Mary, Da’ Vine Joy Randolph, whose son, an African-American exception student at the school, has just been killed in Vietnam. She is a strong character. She is a shrewd character. And, sometimes, she is a facilitator between teacher and student.

As the film goes on, we are reminded that we are often very secretive about our lives. Gradually, we do learn a lot about Mr Hunham, sadly. And we learn more about Angus, especially in the ever more intense interactions between the two. They are not heroes of the film. They are not villains. There is something of both, especially, to our surprise, as more truth is told – and, altruistically, non-truth is told.

It is good to see Paul Giamatti back on the big screen after so much television (84 episodes of Billions). He is one of the US’s best versatile actors.

1. The title? The elite schools, the staff, the students, gatherings, religious dimensions, prayer, the breaks?
2. The 1970, the background of the Vietnam war, the changes during the 1960s, rebellion, criticisms, student attitudes towards staff?
3. The school, the grounds, the interiors, hall, chapel, corridors, kitchen? Classrooms? Student accommodation? Mr Hunham’s apartment?
4. The visit to Boston, the city, cinema, restaurant, mental institution? The musical score?
5. Films about unpopular teachers? Goodbye Mr Chips? Audience anticipating some kind of reconciliation by the end?
6. Paul Giamatti, as a teacher, his manner, gruff, condescending to the students, demanding, quoting the classics, disliked? The gradual revelation of his story, studies, Harvard, accusations, rivals, his career, saved by the headmaster, at the school, staying for 20 years and more, settling into routine, no relationships, his drinking, embittered?
7. The headmaster, helping students to universities, their low grades, financial donations? The teacher excusing himself for winter supervision? Mr Hunham having to take over? Unwilling?
8. The prayer, the ethos of the school, the priest? The students going for the break? Mr Hunham and his class, the failed assignments, Angus and his smart comments, the demand for study during the break? The holdovers? The gathering, the Korean boy and his loneliness, the Mormon boy and his being proper, the racist boy and his attitudes, antagonism towards Angus? The sportsman, genial, his father coming to get him? The father taking all the boys except Angus?
9. Angus, age, background, expelled from schools, the story of his dead father, his mother, remarrying, antagonism towards his stepfather, promise of the Caribbean holiday, denial, the honeymoon instead? His resentment at staying back?
10. The interactions with the holdovers, studies, discipline, work in the snow? Angus, verbal bitterness, insulting Mr Hunham, the accommodation, the study?
11. Mary, her son dead in Vietnam, grief, her work in the kitchen, supervising, staying back during the break, her personality, interactions with Mr Hunham, with Angus? Assessing them well? The story of her son, African-American, able to study at the school? Portrait, remembrance at assemblies?
12. The meals, Mr Hunham and Angus, Mary joining? The Christmas atmosphere?
13. The challenges to Mr Hunham, the issue of truth and lies, the ethos of the school? Mr Hunham finally telling his true story after the encounter with his rival from the past? Angus and his lies about his father?
14. The challenge for going to Boston, justifying it as a field trip, the regulations, the two going together, the experience in Boston, Angus and his exhilaration, freedom, going to see Little Big Man, his escaping from the cinema, Mr Hunham following, going to the institution, the truth about his father, the sadness of his father’s mental deterioration, paranoia about his food being poisoned? The effect on Angus?
15. Truth telling, enjoyment of the time in Boston, eating together, the buying of the tree? Gifts? Mr Hunham giving the same classic book?
16. The final confrontation, the headmaster, the parents coming, the story of Angus’s father and his being upset, the interview with Mr Hunham, his taking on the responsibility for the outing, complete responsibility, his being fired?
17. Angus saved, uses of truth and lies, Mr Hunham wanting to give Angus a chance in life, to stay at the school, not to have to go to the military academy?
18. The two central characters – heroes, part villains? The humanity of this film?