The Holdovers (2023) : Recap, Review and Reflection

Another day, another movie. Hey guys! Today's #nomnommovie post is going to be about a feel-good movie, which has been nominated for more than 200 times in 2024! (Can you believe it?) It's called "The Holdovers"

The Holdovers (2023) is a film directed by Alexander Payne, and written by David Hemingson. I got invited to the press view of the movie and after looking at the trailers, I thought it might be interesting, so I decided to check it out.

Now, let's start with

🎬 the Recap 🎬

This story is about 3 people, who have been put together in a boarding school during the festive winter break. The first is a cranky, unlikable history teacher, Mr. Paul Hunham (played by Paul Giamatti). He was always that one (too) realistic teacher, who barely bent his rules so you can guess, that he was not the best nor the most pleasant to work with. The second is a troublesome teenager, Angus Tulli (played by Dominic Sessa), who's been left in the school by his mother because she wants to go on her honeymoon with her new husband. The third is a grieving mother, Mary Lamb (played by Da'Vine Joy Randolph) working as the canteen manager, who just lost her military son.

They didn't choose to be here together, but as faith would have them spending time with one another. As time went by, getting to learn more about each other and starting to open up, they started to realize that deep down, they were all just the same. Sad people who just needed somebody to hold and embrace them as they were.

I won't go much into the storyline of what happened in the movie, since it could be a spoiler, and/or I find the viewers should see the story of each character played out in the movie.

Now it's time for...

🎬 the Review 🎬

I think this movie is great for a light watch during the winter holiday. The plot is super simple and plain, so just watching and going by the flow on a chill day could be a good match occasion to watch it.

Overall, I find it's nice. Nothing distinctively bad about it, on the other hand, I believe the production and the screenwriting that went into it must have been putting in extra work to make it so simple, yet not forced. As the movie was set in 1971, everything just looked effortlessly put together and I have to give credit for that.

However, most of the time watching it, I was noticing myself yawning and thinking like Okay.. what's next. This indicated that I find it too slow and almost boring for my energetic expectation. The storytelling was quite monotone. By that, I meant in both cinematic visual of the scenery and how the storyline was presented to the viewers. If you don't expect any exciting (or like me, used to be excited from watching a film), it's all good.

If you asked me about the cast, I'd say they were nice too. The chemistry between Giamatti and Sessa as a teacher and a student is remarkable. Throughout the movie, they show the built-up relationship between the two very smoothly and naturally. In both scenes, a drastic fight and make-up reconciliation are quite moving. I felt I could watch it without feeling awkward that it was acting, so I considered it good.

You all know my last part is...

🎬 the Reflection 🎬

There's one scene in which Mr.Hunham talks to Angus about Angus's fear of becoming his dad. Mr. Hunham then says

Because no one is his own father. I'm not my dad. No matter how hard he tried to beat that idea into me. I find the world a bitter and complicated place, and it seems to feel the same way about me.

At that scene, I caught myself interested in this quote a lot and it's an interesting thing to think about.

Have you ever heard that childhood trauma will always affect you? As I work a lot with students and educators, any bad behavior is always traced back to the upbringing of parents. I don't always believe that it's fair. People make changes at all times and it's not right to justify that it's all parents' bad style of nurturing the kids.

Back to the quote from the movie, made me relearn the importance of the environment that shapes the way you are. No one is their own parents. Everyone is their own person. So, I learned to hold my judgment before I let it control me and start imagining things about people, no matter how much I know them. I for sure don't wanna be judged by my parents or my environment. I just wanna be me and I'll try to give that chance to everyone to be themselves too.