he Holdovers is a 2023 American comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne, written by David Hemingson. Set in December 1970 and January 1971, the film stars Paul Giamatti as a strict classics teacher at a New England boarding school who is forced to chaperone a handful of students with nowhere to go on Christmas break. Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa respectively play the school cafeteria manager and one of the students who stays on campus.
The Holdovers premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2023, and was released in the United States by Focus Features on October 27, 2023. It received positive reviews and has grossed $35 million. The film was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute, and has received many other accolades, including two wins at the Golden Globe Awards and five nominations at the 96th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and seven at the British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film.
Plot[edit]
In December 1970, Paul Hunham is an authoritarian classics professor at Barton Academy, a New England boarding school that he once attended on scholarship. His students and fellow teachers despise him for his brutally honest grading and stubborn personality. Barton's headmaster, Woodrup, scolds Hunham for having cost the academy an important donor by giving the donor's son a failing grade, which led Princeton University to rescind its former offer of admission to the donor's son.
As punishment, Hunham is forced to supervise the five students left on campus during the holiday break, including Angus Tully, whose mother abruptly cancelled a family trip to Saint Kitts to honeymoon with her new husband. Also staying behind is cafeteria administrator Mary Lamb, whose son, Curtis, attended Barton before being killed serving in the Vietnam War.
To the students' chagrin, Hunham forces them to study and exercise on their break. After six days, the wealthy father of one of them arrives by helicopter and agrees to take the five students on the family's ski trip. Angus, unable to reach his parents for permission, is left alone at Barton with Hunham and Mary. Hunham catches Angus trying to book a hotel room. Angus impulsively runs through the school halls and defiantly leaps into a pile of gym equipment, which dislocates his shoulder. Hunham takes Angus to the hospital; Angus lies to the doctors about the circumstances of his injury to protect Hunham from blame. At a restaurant, Hunham and Angus encounter Lydia Crane, Woodrup's assistant. Hunham flirts with Lydia, who then invites the pair to her Christmas Eve party.
On Christmas Eve, Angus, Hunham, Mary, and Barton's janitor, Danny, attend Lydia's party. While Angus spends time with Lydia's niece, Elise, Hunham is disappointed to discover that Lydia has a boyfriend, and Mary gets drunk and has an emotional breakdown over Curtis's death. Hunham insists on leaving early. While arguing with Hunham, Angus angrily shouts that his father is dead. Mary scolds Hunham for his unsympathetic behavior.
After reflecting on his behavior and feeling remorseful for his actions, Hunham arranges a small Christmas celebration. With Mary's persuasion, Hunham grants Angus's wish for a "field trip" to Boston. After dropping Mary off in Roxbury to spend time with her pregnant sister, Angus and Hunham bond over various activities in Boston, including ice skating and a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts. They encounter one of Hunham's classmates from Harvard University, who has become a successful academic. When prompted, Hunham lies about his career, and Angus plays along. Hunham reluctantly confesses to Angus that he was expelled from Harvard after deliberately hitting a colleague, a legacy donor's son who framed him for plagiarism, with a car. After the incident ruined Hunham's career ambitions, a connection to a teacher at Barton allowed him to be hired there.
When Hunham and Angus go to see Little Big Man at the Orpheum Theatre, Angus sneaks away and Hunham catches him entering a taxi. Angus explains he wants to see his father, and Hunham agrees to accompany him, assuming they are going to a cemetery. However, Angus's father is alive and confined in a psychiatric hospital due to mental health issues and violent outbursts. Following the visit, Angus expresses concern that his future behavior will echo his father's. Hunham comforts Angus, sincerely expressing respect for him. Hunham, Angus, Mary, and Danny celebrate New Year's Eve together.
In January 1971, Hunham is summoned to Woodrup's office, and finds Angus's mother and stepfather there. They tell Hunham that Angus's visit to the psychiatric hospital was unauthorized and that the snow globe Angus had given his father led to another violent outburst. Angus's mother and stepfather plan to send Angus to a military academy, but Hunham defends Angus and takes full responsibility for organizing the trip. Hunham is subsequently fired, but Angus is allowed to stay at Barton.
Mary, who has come to better terms with Curtis's death, gives Hunham a notebook for the monograph he wants to write. Hunham and Angus share a farewell. In his car, Hunham drinks from a bottle of cognac he stole from Woodrup, then spits some of it out toward the school and drives away.
Cast[edit]
- Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, a classics teacher at the Barton Academy boarding school. Hunham (unlike Giamatti) has a lazy eye, although neither the actor nor the crew have revealed how the effect was produced.[4]
- Dominic Sessa as Angus Tully, a Barton student left on campus during Christmas break
- Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb, Barton head cook and bereaved mother
- Carrie Preston as Miss Lydia Crane, a Barton staff member
- Brady Hepner as Teddy Kountze, Angus's enemy; one of the five holdovers
- Ian Dolley as Alex Ollerman, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; one of the five holdovers
- Jim Kaplan as Ye-Joon Park, an international student from Korea; one of the five holdovers
- Michael Provost as Jason Smith, the Barton football team's quarterback; one of the five holdovers
- Andrew Garman as Dr. Hardy Woodrup, the headmaster of Barton Academy
- Naheem Garcia as Danny, a Barton janitor
- Stephen Thorne as Thomas Tully, Angus' institutionalized father
- Gillian Vigman as Judy Clotfelter, Angus' mother
- Tate Donovan as Stanley Clotfelter, Angus' stepfather
- Darby Lily Lee-Stack as Elise, Angus's romantic interest
- Kelly AuCoin as Hugh Cavanaugh, Paul's former classmate from Harvard
- Dan Aid as Vietnam Vet Kenneth
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
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The Holdovers is the second collaboration between director Alexander Payne and actor Paul Giamatti after Sideways (2004). Payne conceived it after watching Marcel Pagnol's 1935 film Merlusse,[5] and contacted screenwriter David Hemingson, whose boarding-school television pilot he had read.[6] In 2024, Hemingson revealed that the film is partially semi-autobiographical, with some of the dialogue and scenes taken verbatim from his own life, such as words from his own real-life uncle. The scene with the sex worker was inspired by a real-life incident that he described as actually "happened to me on First Avenue and 30th Street with [my uncle] when I was seven years old. This woman walked up on an incredibly cold day and solicited and said, 'The kid can wait around the corner.' That is an actual incident from my life. The cherries jubilee thing is something that happened to me with my mother. So many of the things in the movie are just a love letter to my mom and my uncle and my dad."[7] In June 2021, Miramax acquired the distribution rights.[8] In early 2022, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Carrie Preston joined the cast.[9][10]