The Holdovers
The Holdovers (2023) is a new addition to the list of movies that could count as Christmas movies because they happen at Christmastime, but the story isn’t really Christmas centric. But I firmly count this in the Christmas movie category for a few reasons, the main one being the warming of the heart experienced at the end of the movie.
Unlike Die Hard, The Holdovers does not really lend itself to a running commentary. There are a few things that stand out as relatively hilarious, such as an obvious New Englander displaying waspish behavior; when asked about his mother’s health he says, “we don’t talk about those things.” Classic wasps, classic New England. What follows instead of a linear commentary is instead selected quotes and reflections upon those. While I try to avoid spoilers because this movie really must be experienced, I make no guarantees. Be warned.
First of all, the vibe of this movie is SO 1970s I almost feel like I can remember the decade, which I cannot. The Holdovers is set in 1970 when my parents were both young teenagers. I was not there. But with the style of the credits and the folksy music the viewer is transported straight back to a time of questionable hairstyles and clothing choices (which, if we’re really honest with ourselves, is every time: past, present, and future). The scenery of a New England winter make it impossible, in my case, to watch this movie in any conditions other than under a blanket next to a sleeping cat with only the lights of the Christmas tree on in the room; which is to say it has a very cozy feel. This movie very effectively takes you along to the setting, a 1970 boarding school over Christmas, yet another reason that this feels like a Christmas movie.
The main character of this movie is Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti). He is effectively a Grinch, no so much because he hates Christmas but because he has a fairly dour view of most things. At least that is what is said about him, but as you watch the movie, listen to what he says, and observe what he does you may find that he is not really a curmudgeon. He just doesn’t have the perspective of the majority. He’s also delightfully vicious in his vocabulary, especially when it comes to referring to the boys, the boarding school students. Over the course of the movie he refers to one or more of them as: philistines, reprobates, troglodyte, fetid layabouts, hormonal vulgarian, boor, cretin, vandal, and snarling Visigoths. Oh to be blessed with a mind that can come up with such educated and stinging descriptors.
In my estimation one of the primary things that makes Hunham so grouchy is the privilege and entitlement that runs rampant at the school, Barton. To be fair, Hunham was himself privileged with winning a scholarship to Barton and carrying on to Harvard for college, but it is revealed throughout the movie that he has never had it easy or had anything handed to him. Because of this, he is quick to point out the entitlement in his students and try to give them a dose of reality through a couple prime quips.
First: “For most people life is like a henhouse ladder: shitty and short.” To sum up: be grateful and recognize what you have in front of you, you snarling Visigoths. (To be clear, that’s not when he says the snarling Visigoths thing, I just really like saying snarling Visigoths.) This is said in response to one of the students complaining about the quality of the cooking at the school which is done by Mary, a mother grieving the loss of her son Curtis in Vietnam.
Later in the movie Hunham and Angus, another student, are bickering with each other after an encounter with a Vietnam vet at a bar. Their exchange goes like this:
Hunham: Barton boys don’t go to Vietnam.
Angus: Except for Curtis Lamb.
Hunham: Except for Curtis Lamb.
Hunham points straight at Angus as he repeats what Angus says as if those four words speak multitudes. And they do speak multitudes because Curtis Lamb, unlike the majority of the students, faculty, and staff at Barton, was black. His mother, Mary, couldn’t afford to send him to college when he graduated from Barton, so he went into the army with a plan to go to college on the GI bill. That plan was changed in Vietnam when Curtis was killed. Curtis didn’t have any other option because of his lack of privilege, something that is crystal clear to Hunham and the lesson he desperately wants to impart to Angus.
Hunham is by no means the only moral voice in the movie. He himself is put in his place by Mary. One evening they are sitting and watching television while complaining about being stuck at the school over Christmas to care for the holdover students. In reference to the students Hunham says, “They’ve had it easy their whole lives.” Mary immediately claps back with, “You don’t know that. Did you?” Here she reminds Paul Hunham of his own prejudices against his students, even though he knows from his own experience that not all boarding school students are living an easy life.
Perhaps my favorite quote from this movie comes from Hunham as he makes an argument for the study of history, his subject. “History is not just a study of the past but an explanation of the present.” Ohh boy, does anyone have a shovel to start digging into that one? Break that down from a 1970 perspective. Scarier still, break that down from a 2024 perspective. If you have even a passing knowledge of history the thoughts will stop you in your tracks. But to be fair I probably only really like this part because I was a history major and this feels like vindication for my choice of studies.
None of the above really sounds terribly Christmas-y, I know. But trust me. All I will say is the intangible gifts that the three main characters give to each other are enough to make any Grinch’s heart grow three sizes, in a non-cardiac emergency way.
Highly recommend watching The Holdovers. Watch it twice. It hits harder the second time.
