Nobody plays a strangely likeable curmudgeon like Paul Giamatti

The Holdovers ★★★★
(M) 133 minutes

Paul Giamatti does a nice line in agitation and irritation. His eyes pop, his face flushes and he looks fit to explode. But all this emotion goes with a slight tinge of self-mockery, which makes the nervy characters he plays a lot more likeable than you could ever have imagined.

In Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, however, he keeps his approachable side well camouflaged. He’s cast as Paul Hunham, Barton Academy’s history master, who’s indifferent to his reputation as the school’s most unpopular teacher. He has a well-enunciated wisecrack in response to every insult and little compunction when it comes to meting out detentions and bad marks.

The film is directed by Payne, a specialist in social comedies which segue smoothly from the satirical to the quietly tragic without sliding into sentimentality. It’s often a close-run thing. This one makes no pretence about being anything other than a feel-good film but it’s laced with enough wit and sarcasm to keep you in touch with the fact that nobody here is perfect. Far from it. The feel-good factor stems from their eventual realisation that they can appreciate one another despite their conspicuous faults.

Barton Academy is a New England school for rich kids. Established in the 18th century, it has oak-panelled walls hung with the portraits of former principals – and the current headmaster maintains a highly developed regard for the well-connected parents who keep the place going.

As a result, when Paul awards the son of one of the school’s wealthiest donors a fail mark in his final exam, he’s punished for it. During the Christmas break, he’s made to take care of the holdovers – the boys who will not be going home for the holidays. Initially, there are five of them but four are swept up by a parent at the last minute and taken skiing. This leaves Paul with Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a boy whose taste for the caustic remark is a match for his own.

It’s an incredibly assured performance from Sessa in his first screen role. Tall and gawky, he’s like a skittish young racehorse. He does everything at a gallop. Only later does he consider the ramifications. Paul thinks of him as a nuisance at first, then as a challenge and finally, a cause worth fighting for.

None of this comes as a surprise but watching it unfold is a lot of fun. The all-but-empty school, with its frigid halls and corridors, becomes an island in the snow and Paul, Angus and Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the cook, are the castaways, eventually forming a de facto family while learning more about one another than they ever thought possible – or wise.

It’s the second time that Payne and Giamatti have collaborated. In 2004, they made Sideways with Giamatti as a dogmatic wine snob on a tasting tour of California’s Napa Valley. He was so neurotically inspired that it was impossible to look away. He and Payne are good for one another.

The Holdovers is in cinemas from Thursday, January 11.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.