'The Holdovers' review: Endearing; moving portrait of love, life, grief
Alexander Payne's The Holdovers—released in Indian cinemas on Friday—is the rare film that gets almost everything right. With a story that's set in the 1970s and yet resonates powerfully through its themes of love, grief, and a sense of belonging, it's warm, funny, rightly-paced, heartbreaking, and full of surprises. It's the kind of film you want to forever hold close to your heart.
This is what transpires in 'TH'
The Holdovers is a deep dive into the life of a mercurial teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), who teaches at Barton Academy. He's asked by the principal to chaperone a few boys over the Christmas holidays. Eventually, all boys except Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) find an escape, and TH becomes their combined odyssey; they live more in those two weeks than their whole lives.
It goes beyond its premise
With its heart in the right place and execution duties in the hands of Payne's competent hands, The Holdovers is a series of intelligently written, superbly performed, and mostly unpredictable sequences. "What can this film possibly offer with such a simple premise?" I may have briefly initially wondered, but what unfolds for over two hours really almost makes you well up more than once.
The location and setting are contributors to its finesse
Barton Academy—which feels like home to Hunham (he also studied there and wouldn't be anywhere without it), is set in a chilly town that is covered with sheets of ice. This setting really roots the film into the ground and the punishing weather extends as a metaphor for Hunham—even the warmth of Christmas can't break through the iron cages that guard his heart.
The film's focus on grief is a massive add-on
The Holdovers would have been a flimsy, frivolous affair were it not for its sharp, piercing, and self-aware writing. A heavy thematic thread of grief runs throughout TH—Hunham has had a difficult childhood, Tully is battered by youthful angst and growing pains, and the cafeteria manager and Hunham's friend Mary (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) is grieving the martyrdom of her teenage son, Curtis.
More on its portrayal of the difficulty of letting go
The movie's focus on the three characters' journeys, battles, and different types of grief lends the film much of its gravitas. We keep discovering new things about them every few minutes, and TH, even when it trades with heavy, emotional concepts like death and parental ignorance, doesn't manipulate or beg us to shed tears for it. No over-the-top music, no overly theatrical performances.
Sessa is a star to look out for
I was surprised to realize that this is Sessa's debut role; he commands every scene with such professionalism that it's impossible to take your eyes off him. From being playful with Hunham to making him run after him around school to the way his lips quiver and his Adam's Apple throbs when he's on the verge of a breakdown, Sessa is a breakout star.
Hunham is an interesting, not entirely hateful, character
You're told at the beginning that you're supposed to hate Hunham (all his students do!), but every now and then, you also see flashes of who he really is, and who he could have been. His life, decisions, conversations—everything seems pregnant with possibilities and unsurprisingly, he springs to life when accompanied by Tully. Hunham is married to his past, but Tully represents the future.
Only three primary characters, but that doesn't harm 'TH'
TH doesn't sag at any point and neither does it feel bloated even when its second half is loaded with revelations about the characters. Instead, it feels relaxed; it slows down when it has to, and yet, its wheels keep spinning just the same. The humor is mostly consistent—not slapstick but sourced through genuinely funny situations and normal, everyday conversations.
Hunham and Tully's bickering, its relevance to 'TH'
For the most part, Hunham and Tully are at odds with each other—one described by his vigor and the other by perhaps the lack of it, representing tradition and modernity, the new generation and the one almost gone by. Over time, though, they rub off on each other, and in their bickering lies the film's most comedic, yet deeply poignant, intense, and relatable moments.
'The Holdovers' deserves to be watched theatrically; 3.5/5 stars
Although I believe the rest of the characters shouldn't have been made to exit the stage too soon and some parts were needlessly rushed, The Holdovers makes an undeniably strong case for itself. Its biggest strength is its lead Hunham, a man too much in love with his job and too less in love with himself. Perhaps some of us are like him, too.
