Called “warm” and “cute” by well-meaning liars, The Holdovers is a wildly depressing movie that finally captures the inherent unbearable sorrow of Christmastime. In the same way that The Bear – three panic attacks standing on each other’s shoulders dressed as a TV show – is considered a comedy, The Holdovers does sometimes have someone say or do something funny. But to be clear, at its core this is a movie that repeatedly suggests that nobody really loves you, and if they do, they’ll probably die. Chug some vitamin D and get thee to a sunlamp, as this wintertime blues boogaloo may do a number on ya.
To be clear, writer David Hemingson and director Alexander Payne don’t slather on the sorrow. They dole it out via a shaggy narrative set in the late 60s/early 70s, when America was really going through some shit. Unlike today, when things are fine. Set at a boarding school, the film follows history teacher and epic grumpus Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) as he has to watch over Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), the only boy whose family didn’t bother to retrieve him over the holiday break. Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school’s cook, also stayed behind to feel closer to her son, who was a former student and just died in Vietnam.
The three sad people who have no one to love them snip at each other, bicker, and then soften, seeing themselves in the uncried tears welling up in each other’s eyes. It is heartwarming in the sense that they are finally seen and understood. It is soul-crushing in that this recognition is destined to be fleeting. As the break draws to a close, no big revelations are unwrapped like existential presents. Instead, The Holdovers smirks, waves, and leaves its characters to their isolation.
Payne’s best movie in two decades still doesn’t reach the exhilarating heights of Citizen Ruth or Election, which isn’t a knock on it so much as expectation-setting. It’s essentially a road-trip flick with little road tripping, the isolation of the emptied school standing in for the front seat of a sedan. It is thematically repetitive of so much of Payne’s work, teasing out brief connections and moments that make swimming in sadness survivable.
Randolph is easily the standout, even if she isn’t given enough to do. Her character is apportioned the smallest arc, although you couldn’t make half a rainbow if you put all three journeys back-to-back. It’s fine in a way, because this is just a “snapshot in time” movie that captures a quietly defining moment in three lives. Those lives were sad before and will be just as sad after, which feels “real” but also, you know, sad.
The strong positive reception to the movie isn’t shocking, in that there’s not much to dislike and plenty to enjoy. But it feels hazy and forgettable in a way that almost seems purposeful. It doesn’t seem likely that folks will rewatch The Holdovers each late December, but they may fondly recall it every now and again, which seems in line with the characters’ experiences. In the end, its our memories that keep us warm, when the life (like weather) turns too cold.
Grade = B
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Kit Stone at Hue Watched It says “The Holdovers is the Christmas film we never saw coming. There’s something truly special in the belief that everything happens for a reason. And no matter what things look like, there is hope, love, and joy to be had as long as we can endure the holdover. “
Gissane Sophia at Marvelous Geeks Media says “The Holdovers doesn’t miss a beat in examining the sadness churning around the holidays, topping it off with the kind of melancholy yet restorative ending that hits right where it needs to.”
Stacy Yvonne at Wealth of Geeks says “The beauty of The Holdovers is it’s not just the story of three lonely souls alone in the cold; it’s about three people developing the space for love, whether or not they find a long-lasting one.”