Giamatti: "The Holdovers"

"The Holdovers" has some nice moments. A bully steals a younger kid's glove, and throws it in an icy river. An observer points out that it's the irritating uselessness of the one remaining glove that makes this so cruel. That's the art of bullying.

A teen goes on a "house tour" with a girl he has just met. The girl leads him to a crafting area, where little kids are making ornaments. (It's a Christmas party.) This invites eye-rolling--but the girl defends her family's tradition, and soon the two teenagers are chatting about Picasso and "Guernica." It's surprising, and it seems true to life.

In another scene, a teen gets frustrated about a pinball game. Someone has claimed a spot in line--without doing the work of standing and waiting. The teen is sort of dumb and entitled, and he doesn't recognize that he is in a fight with a Vietnam vet. His discomfort takes the unfortunate form of a bad joke: "We can be a team, I'll be your left hand--since you have a hook instead of fingers." This is tense and unexpected, and again, it feels like it might be from the writer's "lived experience."

But the script is a mixed bag. Too often, the story leans on cliches. A boy visits his institutionalized father--and we can all anticipate that the father is going to say, "You gotta help me. They're sneaking something into my food." (And yes, the father says, "You gotta help me. They're sneaking something into my food.") The protagonist butts heads with a cartoonish headmaster--who cares only about money. (Do you suspect the protagonist might score a few small points against this headmaster, at the end of the movie? You are correct!) A teen worries that he may have inherited a mental illness. You can then write Paul Giamatti's lines for him: "Believe me, you have some issues, but you are not your father. You are your own man. YOU ARE NOT YOUR FATHER." (And, in fact, Giammati clears his throat and says, "You are your own man. YOU ARE NOT YOUR FATHER.")

I wanted this to be stronger--because I have so much admiration for "Election." Maybe next time.

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