Paul Giamatti stars in Christmas dramedy ‘The Holdovers’ – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

Not everybody gets to go home for Christmas. In a new drama, starring Paul Giamatti, the kids at one prep school with nowhere to go during break are called holdovers.

So what happens when the school’s crankiest teacher, trouble-making student and cook spend two intimate weeks together?

I don’t know, watch the movie.

Ahh, winter break.

Well, in “The Holdovers,” those two weeks aren’t so heavenly, at least not at first.

At a New England prep school in the 1970s, a curmudgeonly instructor sticks around for Christmas break to keep an eye on a handful of students with nowhere to go.

Dominic Sessa: “It’s these three people who you know come from very different worlds, very different experiences and create a special bond, a familial bond, and it brings them together in ways that I don’t think many would expect.”

Paul Giamatti plays the killjoy. But soon forms an unlikely bond with brainy student Angus.

Dominic: “Being at a boarding school, I can understand how heartbreaking that would be to be ready for break and then have your own parents tell you you can’t come home for Christmas.”

Played by newcomer Dominic Sessa.

Dominic Sessa: “It’s not explicitly said but you can tell there’s a broken family dynamic there that is going on behind the scenes for him.”

He is a trouble maker, but…

Dominic Sessa: “…At the same time charming and innocent. One of those people you love to hate because you love them.”

Also stuck on campus, is head cook, Mary, played by Da’vine Joy Randolph, who just lost a son in the Vietnam war.

Da’vine Joy Randolph: “What makes this interesting for her as a person in this world is this is her first time that she’s completely alone.”

And it’s only under this circumstance that the unlikely trio could get to know each other so deeply.

Da’vine Joy Randolph: “It’s funny and enjoyable to see their different dynamics. It is sometimes this bizarre mom dad and kid and there are sometimes when the youngest, the kid, is like more of a parent and giving us guidance.”

But she doesn’t mean for Tiktok, kids. This is the 70s.

Da’vine Joy Randolph: “It’s a glimpse or an observation of what it’s like to just allow yourself to truly see someone and be open to receiving what another individual has to offer, as well as what you can also give.”

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