IR Film Review: THE HOLDOVERS [Focus]
Alexander Payne sees his perspectives in slices of life and the motivations that precipitate it. "The Holdovers", set at a prep school in Massachusetts where kids whose parents decided to leave them there over the holidays for whatever reason, are saddled with a stuck-in-his-ways professor who must adjust his perspective in ways in order to see where he is going. Paul Giamatti reunites with his "Sideways" director for a more home-spun tale with shenanigans but nothing like the Thomas Haden Church duo from before. This is a more muted affair...more accessible than say "Nebraska" but perhaps less unique. It becomes more of a three hander but most specifically focused on Giamatti's Professor Hunham and (after a while) his own remaining student Angus (Dominic Sessa -- in his feature debut) who has his own issues.
The balancing energy and the standout of the movie though is Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb in a multi-faceted performance that, despite some cliche elements with the written progression, is unbelievably dynamic and worthy of awards consideration. She understands the kids at this school (her son went there) but she also understands their shortcomings and their hang ups which stand in parallel to the people they will become. The pace is representative of a Payne film so it lets the viewer settle in to the people they are dealing with. The characters' actions are not unsensible but are expected in the process of human nature. People are who they are and they won't necessarily change. However that, in a way, is the universality of "The Holdovers". It relates to the nature of the characters based in the context of circumstance.
Angus' story is a bit more tragic in a way than some but, like many, he has to deal with it. The comeuppance is more in relation to Giamatti's Hunham but it speaks to the aspect of that th professor understands what he teachers but not how to relate it, except through life experience which he really doesn't have. That is why one moment in a museum with Angus on an impromptu field trip to Boston speaks volumes. Marrying that to an earlier moment when Angus helps one of the younger kids get through his fears and homesickness shows the heart that lies below the surface...even if the characters for the most part (by design) don't want to reveal it to themselves or to others. The setting around Christmas and in the cold of winter adds to the concept though in a way it also ties it up but that is the crux and intent of the story. B
By Tim Wassberg
