Anushka Halve
The Holdovers is about three people who come together, dismissing the conventional barriers that society has erected to keep them apart. They find points of commonality and briefly, become a community for one another.
The Holdovers seems like director Alexander Payne’s take on Dead Poets Society (1995), replacing the inspiring effervescence of Robin Williams’ John Keating with the dour grumpiness of Hunham.
The film ultimately settles into a gentle exploration of class, privilege and prejudice. , but wrapped in a story about three lonely misfits unexpectedly finding comfort at a time of despairing sadness.
They add richness to the snowglobe of a world in which The Holdovers is set. Brady Hepner as delightful as the exasperatingly wealthy Teddy Kountze. Carrie Preston is the charming Lydia Crane, who is goodness personified.
The jokes land just as well as the sucker punches, with Payne divining wonderful moments of comedy and tenderness out of Hemingson’s script.
“You can’t even dream a whole dream, can you?” Mary says to Hunham at one point, and he has nothing to counter her. Yet, by the end of The Holdovers, it seems all three of them might be a step closer to being able to dream and in a world that’s falling apart, that seems like enough of a gift.