Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Carrie Preston, Brady Hepner, Ian Dolley, Michael Provost, Andrew Garmen, Naheem Garcia, Stephen Thirne, Gillian Vigman, Tate Donovan, Darby Lee-Stack, Bill Mootos, Dustin Tucker, Juanita Pearl, Alexander Cook, Liz Bishop, Cole Tristan Murphy, Will Sussbauer, Carter Shimp, Melissa McMeekin, Dan Aid, Kelly Aucoin, Colleen Clinton, Fred Robbins, David J. Curtis, Pamela Jayme Morgan.
It’s hard to look at Paul Giamatti as anything but one of the absolute greats of 21st Century cinema; not what the old Hollywood desperado’s would have had the public believe have being the leading man on the celluloid silver screen, but in a time when we look to the brilliance of the soul and not the hard dollar of allure that was granted by the press as afforded the likes of Cary Grant or Steve McQueen, what brings Mr. Giamatti to the fore is insightfulness to the role at hand and a genuine likeability, a congeniality which brightens up every film, every scene he has ever been in.
Rarely does such a commodity of pleasure come across in an entire career, and whilst it should not detract to the point where the audience is focusing all their attention on the one person, occasionally it does happen; thankfully as the celebrated actor has proved many times, Paul Giamatti is generous with his time on screen, and as the viewer once more is seized by his performance in The Holdovers, they surely cannot be anything but impressed by his two main co-stars of Dominic Sessa and Da’Vine as they all combine to deliver one of the supremely in depth films that deals with honour, rebellion, societal change, and the nostalgia in the belief that we can alter the perception of another just by listening to their sorrow.
Set at the start of the 70s when the United States of America was embroiled in the Vietnam War, when the extremes of society inadequacies were as much at the forefront of the national debate as they are now, The Holdovers is a genuinely sweet film that casts an eye on the relationship between three main players, the abrasive but ultimately decent Paul Hunham, the embittered lost soul and abandoned seventeen year old Angus Tully, and Mary Lamb who lost her only child, and former student of the select paying school, to the war, as they learn to see each other as family; to respect each other for their problems as well as their sorrow.
It is in the final conclusion that the necessary bond is completed, the friend providing honour for the other to thrive, and in a scene filled with pathos and beauty, Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa grasp the difficulty of precise meaning with affection and mutual respect.
The Holdovers is a film that captures and frames the human spirit with absolute conviction; one that requires nothing more than expression and truth to guide it.
Ian D. Hall