The Holdovers: A Christmas Comedy!

This film came out in October and hardly any theatres are showing it now, but I would recommend renting it once it becomes available.  The film reunites Director Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti, who were a great team in "Sideways." The movie is set in the early 70's at a prestigious, all-male, New England boarding school – The Barton Academy.  Paul Hunham (Giamatti) is a history teacher who has been a professor at the school for his entire career.  The students there are spoiled brats with rich parents.  Paul, although brilliant, is a rigid, distant, arrogant man who has alienated the students and faculty.  He has no personal life and lacks social intelligence. Paul is chosen to watch over the few students whose parents didn't want them home for the Christmas holiday.  In addition to Paul and the students staying over for Christmas is the school cook, Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph).  Mary's son was recently killed in the Viet Nam war, and she is understandably having a rough time. The film primarily involves the relationships between Paul, Mary, and a troubled student named Angus (Dominic Sessa) which evolve over the holiday.  The movie is often very funny and each of these characters develop in important, positive ways from their interactions with each other.  The acting from the three leads is excellent, and the screenplay is terrific, too. Unlike most of the movies I see, I wished that "The Holdovers" was longer.