The Holdovers (2023): A new Christmas classic
Each year, when writers and directors rush to make Christmas movies, the production team often focuses more on making a Christmas movie than making a quality movie. In the desire to manufacture a new holiday staple, many of these subpar Christmas movies are often garishly draped in all the holiday accouterment a studio can muster; expect conspicuous needle drops of every classic Christmas song you can think of, a set design tastelessly decorated with every available ornament, and, of course, for the movie to climax with a supposedly heartwarming Christmas Eve celebration. Indeed, this kind of corny holiday affair—think movies like Christmas with the Kranks (2004), Deck the Halls (2006), or Four Christmases (2008)—seems to be dressed up in everything except likable characters, charming scripts, and legitimate respect for the audience that make a real classic.
Fortunately for those sick of the aforementioned breed of manufactured holiday cheer, director Alexander Payne’s new film The Holdovers (2023) should serve as an appropriate balm for your Christmas woes!
Set in the Christmas of 1970 at the fictional New England boarding school Barton Academy, this film follows the unlucky band of students with no place to go over the Christmas break, and the unlikely staff forced to babysit them. Immediately noticeable is the film’s commitment to period detail: Payne and company invested painstaking detail in recreating the feel of Christmas ‘70, down to the fashion, cars, hairstyles, and music. The period detail is present beyond the immediate text of the film, with the opening studio logos done in an early-70s typeface, and digital cinematography edited to appear like period-appropriate film stock, with accurate film grain and all.
Yet, the real heart of The Holdovers (2023) is the characters. The lead is veteran actor Paul Giamatti, who portrays misanthropic teacher Paul Hunham. He’s an alumnus of Barton himself and is an unhappy man assigned to take care of the holdovers at Barton over the Christmas break. He has no family and finds his students vulgar, his peers oafish, and his superiors devious—here is a man happy to spend the holidays and his life alone as he eventually fades into memory.
Perfectly complimenting Giamatti is debut actor Dominic Sessa as student Angus Tully. Left behind by his mother and stepfather at Barton over Christmas, Tully is a tightly-wound ball of resentment who clashes perfectly with Giamatti’s Hunham. Tully isn’t all angst and sharp edges, however—he is sensitive and whip-smart, often portrayed as an intellectual equal of Hunham. Beneath all his veneer of cynicism, Tully is just a young man coming into his own, left behind by his family at Christmas time.
Rounding out the central cast is Da’Vine Joy Randolph as the school’s cook, Mary Lamb, whose son has recently passed away in Vietnam. Randolph brings a wonderful warmth and empathy to the character, preventing the role from fading into the background or second fiddle in her role as de facto mediator between Hunham and Tully’s headstrong personalities, as could have occurred with a lesser actor. Over the difficult Christmas season, these three unlikely companions may find peace with each other.
The Holdovers (2023) is a movie that finds its strength in the trust of its audience. It has respect for its viewers, finding no need to rush through its story or hand-hold the audience. As mentioned, Payne and screenwriter David Hemingson are invested in making a good movie first and a Christmas movie second, ironically making it such a wonderful Christmas film. Accentuating the Christmas-y nature of the film are the beautiful New England landscapes, charming villages, and majestic forests, all coated in thick blankets of snow.
Unlike many other movies, the snow featured in The Holdovers (2023) isn’t shredded paper or the result of a snow machine, as in many other Christmas movies, but the result of early-January location shooting across New England. It’s a relatively minor detail, but a wonderful addition to the film’s immersive tapestry, with the snow being an omnipresent aspect of the movie’s wintery aesthetics.
Overall, The Holdovers (2023) is a delightful movie: tenderly directed, with a gently humanistic script brought to life by a troupe of excellent actors and a pitch-perfect atmosphere. With a charming and deeply affecting story, this is a new instant holiday classic that this writer can picture himself revisiting on many future Christmases.
The Holdovers (2023) is currently in theaters and will be available for digital rental on Nov. 28, 2023.
Thumbnail Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons