It's a comedy-drama set from December 16, 1970, to the first week of January 1971 in an exclusive boy's boarding school in New England and Boston, Massachusetts. It follows the experiences of the "holdovers," that is, the students who cannot go home over the Christmas holidays and the two Barton staff left to supervise them during the holidays.
There are five holdovers: Teddy Kountze (Brady Hepner), Jason Smith (Michael Provost), and Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) are upper-class wealthy WASP students. Alex Ollerman (Ian Dolley) is a younger Mormon student whose parents are on a mission in South America. Ye-Joon Park (Jim Kaplan) is from South Korea.
Left to supervise is Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), an unmarried ancient history teacher who was once a student at Barton and has taught there all his career. He's a demanding curmudgeon who almost everyone dislikes. African American Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), the head cook, is also present; her son, a Barton grad, has just been killed in Vietnam.
The film follows the shared experiences of the holdovers, though four students leave after a week when a wealthy father takes them for a ski holiday. Paul cannot contact Angus's parents, so he must stay with Paul and Mary at Barton. We also meet the school's headmaster, Hardy Woodrup (Andrew Garman), his administrative assistant, Lydia Crane (Carrie Preston), and janitor Danny (Naheem Garcia).
"The Holdovers" is a delightful comedy leavened with wisdom as we learn the dark secrets that have shaped Paul Hunham and Angus Tully. Giamatti, Sessa, and Randolph are all excellent. The script unfolds the twists and turns superbly. "The Holdovers" is a great Christmas movie.
