Writer: David Hemingson
Director: Alexander Payne
In children’s fiction, the opportunity to stay at boarding school for the holidays is a thrilling adventure but for David Hemingson’s characters in their late teens, it smacks of abandonment, boredom and punishment, especially when one of the teachers is assigned to monitor them at all times. The Holdovers, set in the Christmas of 1970 and screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2023, depicts a classic disaffected student-inspirational teacher relationship, only it takes Paul and his pupil Angus most of the film to develop first a grudging respect and eventually a kind of affection. But both are such caustic, well-drawn characters that watching their spikey interaction is a joy.
Running for two hours and 15 minutes, The Holdovers begins when Angus receives a call from his mother who has decided to spend Christmas in St Kitts with her new husband alone. Forced into the company of Professor Hunham, a loathed ancient world teacher, and a group of other leftover boys, Angus acts out. Yet, as Christmas approaches, an unlikely band forms between student and teacher as well as school cook Mary that sees them through to New Year.
Hemingson’s film, directed by Alexander Payne, has a wonderful wry humour expressed primarily through the verbal jousting between Paul and those around him. He chastises the boys openly in class, pinpointing their philistinism and below average intelligence despite the privilege and wealth that each one represents. These unexpected and terse exchanges deliver plenty of laughs, but The Holdovers develops into a nuanced and meaningful character study of people left alone in the world one way or another, perhaps disappointed with their life yet equally afraid of a future beyond the status quo.
To all this director Payne brings a strong 70s-movie aesthetic both in the filmic style that plays down colour for a more realist impression, and in the gentle melancholic soundtrack choices from the era that create plenty of atmosphere. It is a subtle 1970s, however, not a fashion parade but a reflection of how ordinary people in a small boarding school town might dress which, along with the much older educational establishment setting gives a sense of timelessness. The problems of Paul, Mary and Angus are nicely specific but the film’s commentary on class, parental responsibility, teacher-pupil relationships are also universal as education in some form shapes them all.
Paul Giamatti has lots of fun as Paul, a Classics expert who hates his students and most of his colleagues. It takes some time for the barriers to come down, but the audience learns about his own history at just the right time to give his character the extra dimensions it needs. Dominic Sessa is also increasingly likeable as Angus, angry at the world and unable to manage appropriate responses, but he too has a depth that brings greater understanding, while the grief-stricken cook played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph adds a meaningful perspective and a fearsome presence as the pragmatic third.
The Holdovers throws together an unlikely group of people whose path to a common ground is enjoyably realised, and while steeped in social isolation at all ages, the Christmas they spend together becomes one to remember.
The Holdovers is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2023.
