The Holdovers

You can sympathize with any teenager who has to navigate winter break away from their family, even the spoiled rich kids who populate The Holdovers. Spending that time under the watchful eye of Paul Hunham practically guarantees an unhappy holiday.

Poking fun at the stuffiness and affluence of high-brow academia, this character-driven saga of redemption and self-discovery from director Alexander Payne (Sideways) is bittersweet and quietly profound, sprinkling in nuggets of humane wisdom beneath its familiar surface.

Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is a Grinch in human form, an ancient history teacher at a posh New England prep school so curmudgeonly and outwardly condescending that calling his students “entitled little degenerates” is practically a term of endearment.

“I find the world a bitter and complicated place,” he explains with deadpan cynicism,” and it seems to feel the same way about me.”

In the winter of 1970, Hunham’s disdain extends to his superiors, who assign him the duty of chaperoning any students who remain on campus during the holiday break. It proves to be a mismatch made in heaven.

Angus (Dominic Sessa) was supposed to spend Christmas in the Caribbean, but a last-minute change of plans leaves him stranded with Hunham and the school cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who is still mourning the death of her son in Vietnam. Her circumstances highlight the unspoken racial and socioeconomic disparities on the campus, toward which Hunham is particularly sympathetic.

Meanwhile, Angus proceeds to break as many arbitrary rules as possible, both to relieve his own boredom and get under Hunham’s thin skin. But their misadventures become both bittersweet and mutually beneficial.

Inevitably they find common ground as both teacher and student reveal layers of compassion and vulnerability — some more contrived than others — while predictably lowering their antagonistic shields.

The trio of richly textured central performances, including regular Payne collaborator Giamatti and newcomer Sessa, bring nuance and depth to the emotional arc of this slightly dysfunctional surrogate family.

The leisurely paced screenplay by veteran sitcom writer David Hemingson features some clever wordplay and subtle nuances that enable the film to sidestep cheap seasonal sentimentality.

Evocative throwback visuals immerse us in the wintry setting of The Holdovers, which conveys a gentle lesson — perhaps to Hunham’s disdain — that we’re shaped less by memorization in history class and more by the spontaneity of our day-to-day experiences.

Rated R, 133 minutes.