I confess that I was somewhat anxiously waiting to see Alexander Payne‘s ‘The Holdovers‘ (2023). 5 Oscar nominations should be a guarantee of watching a quality or at least interesting film. On the other hand, my experiences with Payne‘s previous films have been mixed. After having hit gold (in my opinion) with ‘About Schmidt’, none of his other films have been able to convince me: too much melodrama, too obvious attempts to fake dealing with ‘serious’, ‘real life’ themes and to prepare and serve them to the spectators in syrupy sauces. The only film of his after 2002 that really amused me was ‘Downsizing’ which was a failure with the public (both ratings and box office) and critics. Obviously, my tastes and those of many other moviegoers do not coincide when it comes to Payne‘s films. My fears proved to be well founded. I found ‘The Holdovers‘ to be the most overrated film of this cinema season.
The story takes place in a private boarding school, attended by the sons of wealthy parents and financed by those. During the holidays everyone goes home, but there are always a few exceptions: students whose parents are traveling or busy with other issues stay at the boarding school. They are supervised and cared for by a minimal staff – usually a teacher and a cook. In the Christmas season of 1970, the teacher is Mr. Hunham, a grumpy and stern bachelor teacher whose specialty is the history of ancient civilizations, and the cook is Mary, who recently lost her son in the Vietnam War. Shortly after the start of the holidays, the only student left at the boarding school is Angus. His mother had married for the second time and at the last moment had informed him that she was going on a ‘honeymoon’ with her new husband instead of the family vacation that the boy was expecting. The three “holdovers” make up an ad hoc family that, by necessity and not by choice, must spend the holidays together. It is a good opportunity to get to know each other beyond didactic or social barriers, to discover their qualities, weaknesses and secrets, to support each other at this time of the year when no one should be alone.
‘The Holdovers‘ is not a film without qualities. The year 1970 is brought to the screen in an extremely believable manner and with a natural style that made me realize only after a good few minutes that the cars are longer and that no one has used a cell phone. The acting performances are all excellent, even if the Oscar nominations for Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph seemed a bit over the top. It was the debutant Dominic Sessa‘s performance in the role of the boy that seemed to me the most remarkable due to the naturalness with which he brings to the screen the moral dilemmas and coming to age problems of an intelligent, sensitive young man, but with troubles of adaptation in unfriendly social environments. It is possible that this film will go down in history as the debut of an important actor of cinema for decades to come. On the other hand, David Hemingson‘s screenplay, sorry, is full of banal and predictable kitsch – a strange combination of extremely well-written dialogues and melodramatic solutions to the dilemmas of each individual character. As for 5 Oscar nominations, what can I say? Best Picture nomination when Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’ is left out? Best Actor for Paul Giamatti while Koji Yakusho isn’t on the list? One thing is certain. The Christmas movie genre is getting richer with another piece that will be heavily scheduled on television during the last ten days of each year for the next few decades.