‘The Holdovers’ Holds Back the Backstory

The movie offers great lessons in character development.

Tired of big noisy blockbusters? The Holdovers could be what you’re looking for.

Paul Giamatti stars as the sort of character he plays best—a strict, cranky, thoroughly unpleasant history teacher who expects his privileged students to work hard and earn their grades. The character, also named Paul, teaches at his alma mater, an all-male boarding school called the Barton Academy.

Paul gets stuck babysitting the kids who have nowhere else to go during the holiday season of 1970. Initially, the group of “holdovers” consists of five boys, but four of them receive an out. Paul is then left with just one boy whose parents he can’t reach, a troubled teen named Angus (Dominic Sessa). The cafeteria manager, Mary (Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who deservedly won an Oscar for the role), also remains at the school over the holidays as she mourns her son, who was recently killed in Vietnam.

Circumstances force this unlikely trio together, and bonds gradually develop throughout the holiday season.

Directed by Alexander Payne, The Holdovers is very much a character-based comedy/drama, one that’s reminiscent of a John Hughes movie. David Hemingson has written a strong, intelligent screenplay, which received a well-earned Oscar nomination. [EDIT: The script was recently accused of plagiarism. If true, that would obviously be awful and the original writer would deserve credit. Thanks to Joe C. for bringing this up in the comments.]

The screenplay demonstrates an excellent strategy for character development: show how the characters are, and then later reveal backstory that adds context so we understand why the characters are the way they are. The backstory, delivered at the right time and in the right manner, retroactively enriches what we’ve already watched.

This is no simple trick. Pulling it off is far more difficult than explaining it.

I’ll have to spoil a bit about the movie to get into this. If you haven’t watched it yet, you really should.

In the case of Paul, we’re most of the way through the movie when we learn that he was falsely accused of plagiarism back during his student days at Harvard. Because of the accuser’s connections, the accusation destroyed his academic career. It was only due to the understanding of an old Barton headmaster that Paul managed to secure his current job.

Once we learn that, previous events of the movie acquire deeper meaning and make more sense. Now we understand why he’s so hard on his students and why he hates playing politics with donors and legacies.

Imagine if this information was laid out early in the movie, perhaps via voice-over narration as Paul reflects on his lot in life. Paul Giamatti likely would have performed it well, but it would have been passable at best. We wouldn’t have had any reason to care about the information at that point.

Instead, we learn the information after we’ve gotten to know Paul through his actions and behavior. Plus, the fact that he tells this to Angus shows us how they’ve grown closer during their time together and how Paul has changed as a result.

The movie does the same with Angus and Mary. We learn late in the movie that Angus’s father has been institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital and that Angus fears someday sharing a similar fate. Again, the revelation recontextualizes his previous behavior.

For Mary, the death of her son is established early on—some information can’t wait—but we learn more about her family’s specific circumstances gradually throughout the movie, such as how her son enlisted because it was his sole path to college. Mary’s job in the cafeteria is the only reason she was able to enroll him at Barton, which was supposed to be his ticket to a successful future. This adds meaning to her staying at the school over the holidays, and it also ties into Paul’s frustrations with his privileged students.

Other movies and shows I’ve covered have successfully employed this strategy of character development. Planes, Trains & Automobiles waits until the end of the movie to reveal vital information about the wife of John Candy’s character. In the third season of Star Trek: Picard, we meet Captain Shaw as a crusty by-the-book officer who resents Picard and Riker, and in a later episode, we learn why he’s this way, which cements him as a memorable character. The Bear on Hulu provides another great example.

Information is meaningless without context, but everything needs to be properly set up so the information lands in a meaningful way when it’s finally revealed. Again, not easy.

Watch The Holdovers to see it done right.