The Holdovers

The Holdovers

Discomfort and joy.

Rating

4.3 (2)

Release Date

10/27/2023

Runtime

133 mins

Overview

A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.

Status

Released

Original Language

English

Budget

$13,000,000

Revenue

$42,513,270

Homepage

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How It Feels

Read from this film's synopsis, keywords and credits, and used to work out what it sits beside.

A quietly moving film about three isolated people finding unexpected warmth in each other over a snowed-in Christmas break. It's the kind of character study that sneaks tenderness past your defenses through humor and hard-won connection.

Mood

MelancholicBittersweetWistfulHopeful

Themes

GriefIsolationRedemptionFamilyComing of age

Look

NaturalisticWidescreen epic

Heads up

Suicide and self-harmAddiction

Reviews

stormaciousd

I'm glad I didn't watch this as part of my Christmas December. Watching it on January 2nd set a more appropriate mood, alone in my house with my work laptop after two weeks off, instead of sandwiched between Home Alone 2 and Prancer.

I love how if someone (who isn't familiar with any cast members and their ages relative to time) watches this, they could potentially have no idea what decade it's from. A timeless story about people. Simple and complex.

I'm going to start with it in future years, in those days after Thanksgiving when you're not ready to go full Christmas but starting to feel the yuletide itch.

Christmas Ranked

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