A cranky history teacher at a remote prep school is forced to remain on campus over the holidays with a troubled student who has no place to go and a grieving cook.

Alexander Payne’s latest movie, ‘The Holdovers’, tells the story of a curmudgeonly, unpopular school teacher who finds himself in charge of a group of students who have nowhere to go over the Christmas period. Like pretty much all Alexander Payne films, it is a balance of comedy and drama with real pathos, and it reunites him with his ‘Sideways’ star Paul Giamatti, who takes on the leading role of classics teacher Paul Hunham. It is set in 1970, and it also feels like it was made in the 70s through both the filming aesthetic and the mature, intelligent writing that is most associated with that formidable era of moviemaking. After the slight misfire that was ‘Downsizing’, this is definitely a return to form for Payne, and I thought it was a really good movie, perhaps one of Payne’s best.

Paul Hunham (Giamatti) is a strict classics teacher at Barton Academy, a New England boys boarding school, whose brutal demeanour and high standards make him difficult for the students or his colleagues to warm too. Other than a short spell studying at Harvard University, Hunham has spent most of his life at Barton, first as a student and then as a teacher – we sense he isn’t entirely happy at how things have panned out, much as he says otherwise. As we head into the Christmas period, Hunham is left in charge of 5 boys, which soon becomes 1, when the school manage to persuade the families of the other 4 to collect them. No such luck for Angus Tully (newcomer Dominic Sessa), who is left alone alongside a teacher he hates and Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), one of the school cooks who is grieving the loss of her son in Vietnam earlier that year. Over time, these three individuals will open up to each other and develop bonds and we can see a quasi-family dynamic developing.

At its heart, ‘The Holdovers’ is an old fashioned drama with good writing and believable characters, and I found myself really engrossed in these peoples lives. It is a funny film with plenty of laughs, and in there is something compelling about watching these wounded individuals trying to move forward, to find something to grasp on to even as they cope with personal tragedies and challenges. Paul Giamatti, who is so good in loads of things, is at his absolute best here, while Dominic Sessa and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in particular shine as well. ‘The Holdovers’ is a charming, bittersweet movie with great performances and sharp writing, and it is undoubtedly a return to form for director Alexander Payne.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Alexander Payne

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Carrie Preston and Brady Hepner

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt14849194/