Review: 'The Holdovers' has the makings of a new holiday classic

We're all suckers for inspirational movies about teachers, whether it's Robin Williams in "Dead Poets Society," Jack Black in "School of Rock," or name your favorite "Mr. Chips" knockoff. I'm pleased to report that "The Holdovers," now in theaters, is not one of those movies.

Why? Because Paul Hunham, the harried educator acted to absolute perfection by Paul Giamatti, is damn near impossible to like. At Barton Academy, tucked away in Massachusetts, Mr. Hunham looks like he'd rather murder his students than mentor them for college.

"Vulgar little Philistines" is one of the kinder terms Mr. Hunham uses to describe his pupils, almost all of whom have been given D or F grades on their midterm exams on ancient civilizations. Mr. Hunham can insult his charges in Latin, but instead sends the boys off for the winter break with arduous homework assignments and barely concealed contempt.

The kids hate him, teasing his sneak boozing, his wall-eyed stare and the skin condition that makes him smell like rotting fish. There are other, intensely private reasons Mr. Hunham is a stern, inflexible taskmaster, as we learn from the wily David Hemingson script, set in 1970, when Barton's privileged white students easily avoid the Vietnam draft.

"The Holdovers" is expert at keeping the sappy at bay. And that's due to the superbly nuanced direction of Alexander Payne ("Election," "Nebraska"), who guided Giamatti in his greatest screen role as a merlot-hating wine authority in 2004's "Sideways." Giamatti never settles for skin deep, as witness his TV work on "Billions" and his Emmy-winning star turn in "John Adams."

I interrupt this review to get in one of my own Hunham-like putdowns. Giamatti should have won the best actor Oscar for "Sideways," but shamefully he wasn't even nominated. Heads up, Academy, don't let that happen again. Giamatti is too good for your reliably stupid snubs.

His talent shines on its highest beams as Mr. Hunham is saddled with babysitting troublemaker Angus Tully (newcomer Dominic Sessa, a sparking livewire whom Payne discovered at a private school drama club). The headmaster is punishing the unpopular teacher for flunking out a legacy student whose rich senator daddy contributes mightily to the school coffers.

So it's up to this teacher from hell to keep tabs on wildcard Angus, with grudging help from the school's Black cook, Mary Lamb, grieving her soldier son's death in 'Nam and played by an all-kinds-of-wonderful Da'Vine Joy Randolph (so good as the brash cop in "Only Murders in the Building"), who takes you from laughter to tears without a dishonest note in between.

And so this trio of emotionally damaged outcasts break out of their bubble for a Christmas party and a strictly-against-the-rules car trip to Boston, where holiday cheer collides with personal trauma. It's just when you think you hear the clichés clicking into place that Payne pulls the rug out from under you for a poignant climax you won't see coming.

Led by Giamatti in a career-crowning performance, all the actors shine in "The Holdovers," which has the makings of a new holiday classic. It's an exuberant gift of a movie with an empathy for flawed humanity we can use all year. Funny how a deceptively modest crowd-pleaser can restore you with its lived-in truths.