Film: The Holdovers

Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa

This is a lovely, slightly long (well over two hours) but beautifully filmed movie, written by David Hemingson and directed by Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants and Downsizing). Payne is known for his character driven and social comment films and this film falls into this genre.

Set in the 1970s, the film takes place over the Christmas holidays at Barton Academy, a posh boarding school for boys from elite families. In its filming style and colour tones, Payne has tried not just to evoke that era, with its terrible fashions and hair cuts, but also to make it look as if it was actually filmed in the 70s.

At the heart of the film is Prof Paul Hunham, the unpopular and strict classics master played by Paul Giamatti (who has won a golden globe for his portrayal). His confident exterior and caustic classroom put downs, however, hide a lonely and vulnerable man whose only consolations in life are his books, his whisky and his old fashioned moral principles. He may love his books but it becomes clear, not people, and particularly not his entitled pupils whose casual cruelty to each other is portrayed.

As the film evolves we find out why the professor despises his pupils so much and why he has spent his entire teaching life at the same school and never moved on. Some of the trailers from the film make it look as if the film is a rip-roaring comedy, which it isn't. Rather it is a warm but rather melancholic film about the power of love to bring healing and transformation to prickly, difficult and hurting individuals.

As the film opens we learn that because Hunham has given a senator's son an F, jeopardising the boy's admittance to Cornell, he has been assigned to look after the holdovers - these are the pupils who for different reasons can't return to their families over the Christmas vacation.

Neither he nor the pupils are happy about this. Four of the five pupils, however, are eventually whisked away by helicopter, leaving him alone with Angus, a wired and rebellious 15 year-old (Dominic Sessa) and Mary, the school cook, (Da Vine Joy Randolphe - also a Golden Globe winner for her performance) who is grieving her son who died in the Vietnam War.. The film charts the ups and downs of the motley trio as they try make the best of things and celebrate Christmas in the bleak and cavernous school.

Initially Angus makes Hunham's life as difficult as possible but gradually through being thrown together, and learning more about each other, a respect, and eventually a kind of love grows between them all, as they become a makeshift family. This causes Hunham's protective shell to start to crack. He begins, rather awkwardly at first, to care for his new friends which opens him up to others. This journey culminates in Hunham making a huge sacrifice to save Angus' future. The price he pays is also a resurrection moment for him, setting him free from his past. The film thus ends on a note of hope and a reminder of the power of love to bring about change.

The Holdover is available in cinemas from 19th January and on Amazon Prime.

See a trailer here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZZhmlS2QZ4