‘Holdovers’ dramatic, emotional and humorous

“The Holdovers”

Starring: Paul Giamatti

Isn’t it uncanny how when we are all in our youth, school-age children in particular, it always seems to go over our heads that our teachers and instructors are actually real-life people and not just some form of robotics filled with circuitry and wires?

Our not so fully developed brains never take into consideration that these men and woman are individuals who may be married or single for that matter, have families of their own, or not, and face their own struggles just like us grown adults do now.

I believe it was in second grade at Fairview Elementary in Mountaintop, I had a homeroom teacher named Miss Kaplin. Excuse me, as I am not even positive how the woman even spelled her name back then as now it seems like it was B.C. territory. Yes, I am starting to get archaic. Although I can still relish and say I was in fact born after the dinosaurs.

Her well-known nickname throughout the school was “Kissy Kaplin” because her trademark was always wearing firetruck red lipstick night and day. On your birthdays, or any special day really, this woman for no excuse would plant a big red-stained smooch on a card, napkin, your cheek, anything in sight. It was her legacy. I cannot even imagine for one second behavior like that would ever fly in today’s sensitive climate under any thinking person’s administration.

Sadly, that is the state of today’s affairs.

Oscar-nominated character actor Paul Giamatti (“Sideways”) is a cranky, single, New England history teacher in the year 1970. Playing Paul Hunham, like usual drawing the short straw in life, this odd looking, one-eyed brainiac is forced to remain on campus over the holiday break at an upscale, remote prep school babysitting a troubled teenage student (played brilliantly by Dominic Sessa) who has no other place to go.

Joining the duo for some shenanigans is the school cook, Mary Lamb, played deliciously by Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who just lost her grown son in Vietnam. Gratefully, I was pretty well liked by my teachers, I really wholeheartedly believe they passed me sometimes because they took one hard look at me and figured, “This poor boy is already going to have one hard life all on his own” with no help from them.

Directed by Alexander Payne (“Election,” “Sideways,” “Nebraska”, the talented moviemaker authentically pulls off making the audience feel as if they are transported right back into the bell bottom era. Shot with a grainy, dirty, vintage gate weave, all added in post-production of course, “The Holdovers” lands as one of the more solid films to hit the cinema this year.

It was dramatic, emotional, and quite humorous. This little picture is filled with a warmth that is reminiscent of the adult onesie I am wearing right now. Footsies and all. I don’t plan on taking this off either until at least April 1, sorry, not sorry. It takes an awful lot of work to look as ridiculous as I can in this very moment. “The Holdovers” has a deep human quality to it that is rarely found in film lately. There are moments that make one reflect and reminisce about one’s own life whether the cup in question be half empty or, better yet, more optimistically half full!

Christopher’s “Meow” Score: “8” paws out of 10.