Barton Academy somewhere in New England, December, 1970- Ready to head home from boarding school over Christmas break, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) is abandoned by his mother to be one of five holdovers, and soon the only holdover, who stays over break under the watch of classics teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), a bitter, cruel man reviled by peers and students alike who transparently takes his struggles out on his charges. The duo butt heads, but eventually learn that they’re not so – well, no, they’re both terrible, but they learn to stick up for each other.
The Holdovers is the kind of jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold tearjerker that I just can’t get much out of. The jerk, invariably, doesn’t have a heart of gold – both Tully and Hunham are acting out to mask unfair things that have happened to them, which are revealed dramatically, and that kind of cheap emotional heel-turn doesn’t affect me. We all face hardships, handling them poorly doesn’t make you special, and there’s no level of hardship that absolves you of your choices.
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Reel Entropy 