Film Review: THE HOLDOVERS (2023): Director Alexander Payne’s Touching Film Features Paul Giamatti’s Most Heartfelt Performance to Date

The Holdovers Review

The Holdovers (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Alexander Payne, written by David Hemingson and starring Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston, Brady Hepner, Ian Dolley, Jim Kaplan, Michael Provost, Andrew Garman, Naheem Garcia, Stephen Thorne, Gillian Vigman, Tate Donovan, Darby Lee-Stack, Bill Mootos, Dustin Tucker, Juanita Pearl and Alexander Cook.

Director Alexander Payne is back with the warm-hearted comedy/drama, The Holdovers. Paul Giamatti (who Payne directed in the brilliant Sideways almost 20 years ago) plays the central role in The Holdovers. Giamatti plays Paul Hunham, a history teacher at a prestigious boarding school who is rough on his students but comes to befriend his most ambitious student, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) during a holiday break when the pair is stuck on campus while most of the other students and faculty are home with their families. Payne’s film is full of humor but works best as a drama and the two-hour plus movie’s second half is more successful and believable than the first half.

Set mostly in 1970, Da’Vine Joy Randolph plays a fine supporting role in the picture as a cook at the school named Mary Lamb who has lost a son in Vietnam. Randolph is superb in her performance in the picture as Mary becomes a third wheel to Paul and Angus as she also remains on the school campus during the holiday season.

Payne uses clever 1970’s movies references right from the start of the movie. He shows the MPAA rating of the film in the style of a 1970’s cinematic experience and Payne’s opening credits for the new picture pay homage to the style of credits that were prominent in films of that decade. The film opens with Paul giving his students some horrible grades such as “F+” but, surprisingly, Angus seems to get the highest grade in the class. Angus earns a “B+.” Angus says something in class that changes the challenging teacher Paul’s stance on letting his students retake the test most of the class has earned horrible marks on. Angus’s classmates, including Teddy (Brady Hepner) get frustrated with Angus.

The relentless Paul does have some admirers such as a school employee named Miss Lydia Crane (Carrie Preston) but most of the students at the boarding school despise him. The plot kicks in as Angus’s mom is having her honeymoon with her new husband over the holidays and asks Angus to stay behind at the school for winter break. A disappointed Angus slowly gets to bond with Paul and Mary as the story progresses. As other holdovers such as Ye-Joon (Jim Kaplan) leave school, it becomes just Paul, Mary and Angus who share meals and stories about life.

The picture really picks up steam when the trio go to Boston so Mary can see her pregnant sister but Angus has a secret reason for wanting to go to the city. Paul only gets to take Angus to Boston because he fronts it as an educational field trip but things will get complicated as the history of Angus’s father (a fine Stephen Thorne) is revealed. In the interim, a hooker hits on Paul and Paul explains to Angus how hard it is for him to be intimate with another person. Also, Angus and Paul get to watch at least part of a 1970’s movie at a local theater.

Giamatti’s performance is a well-oiled machine. He starts off as cold and difficult but as he learns more about his best student, Angus, Paul begins to see parallels between the lives of the young man and himself even though there is another secret why Paul has been stuck teaching at the school as long as he has. When Paul runs into an old classmate, it opens up a can of worms. Giamatti displays a powerful character transformation that is among the actor’s best work. He could well get a nomination for his work in this picture. His character here has an idea for a book that he wants to work on and may just get the chance to fulfill his dream one day as the movie reaches its moving conclusion.

Sessa holds his own opposite Giamatti which is surprising as Sessa is new to the movie scene. Their scenes together have emotional depth and run the gamut of being funny and sad until Paul eventually has to make a choice to save the young man from a dire situation that arises when Angus’s mom surprisingly comes back into the picture.

Randolph is the icing on the cake. She cracks one-liners and there are some wonderful moments with her at the center of them. When Paul gives presents to Mary and Angus, it’s both the same present and Randolph always seems to know the right thing to say in circumstances such as this one. She gives a very touching and humorous performance.

Payne excels at delving deep inside the emotions of his characters and The Holdovers is thus a very good film. The first half drags a bit, though, until it reaches the point where Giamatti’s character has to make many difficult choices. The second half of the movie, though, is next to perfect and it’s a pleasure watching these three terrific actors play off each other with remarkable results all around in terms of fine acting.

While Payne’s new movie is not at the level of Sideways, it offers viewers a chance to see Giamatti’s softer side in the latter half of the picture. The first half of the movie shows Giamatti’s character as someone completely different from who he really ends up being as a person so it’s a pleasure watching Giamatti’s character transformation on screen here. The Holdovers is nothing less than a reminder that people are all vulnerable underneath their sometimes hard exteriors. This picture could just be a ticket to another Oscar nomination for the always versatile and terrific Giamatti.

Rating: 8/10

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