Nobody likes teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti)--not his students, not his fellow faculty, not the headmaster, Dr, Hardy Woodruff (Andrew Garman), who all find his pomposity and rigidity exasperating. With no family and nowhere to go over Christmas holiday in 1970, Paul remains in school to supervise students unable, for different reasons, to journey home. After a few days, and most of the students were able to leave, only one student holdover remains--a trouble-making 15-year-old named Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a good student whose bad behavior always threatens to get him expelled. Joining Paul and Angus is head cook Mary Lamb (Da"Vine Joy Randolph), an African-American who caters to sons of privilege and whose own son recently lost in Vietnam. These three very different shipwrecked people form an unlikely Christmas family sharing comic misadventures during two very snowy weeks in New England. The real journey is how they help one another understand that they are not beholden to their past--they can choose their own futures.
Others to round out the cast are Carrie Preston as Miss Lydia Crane, Brady Hepner as Teddy Kountze, Michael Provost as Jason Smith, Ian Dolley as Alex Ollerman, Jim Kaplan as Ye-Joon Park, Tate Donovan as Stanley Clottfelter, Gillian Vigman as Judy Clottfelter, Naheem Garcia as Danny and Stephen Thorne as Thomas Tully.
This was directed with clarity and pathos by the incomparable Alexander Payne ("The Passion of Martin" '91, "Citizen Ruth" '96, "Election" '99, "About Schmidt" '02, "Sideways" '04, "Paris, se t'aime" (segment: "14e amondissement") '06, "The Descendents" '11, "Nebraska" '13, "Downsizing" '17) plus TV, a short and videos. This filmmaker is amazing in that his ability to encourage his actors to extract the emotions they exude simply compliments the screenplay. He used Giamatti in "Sideways" and that film also starring Thomas Haden Church, has got to be one of Payne's best films, so, of course, using Giamatti was a brilliant choice. Payne writes a fair amount of his own work, however, this was written well by a virtual newcomer, David Hemingson ("Two Beautiful Children" (TV movie) '07, "The Call" (TV movie) '07) plus a plethora of TV. Even though he has an abundance of TV experience, this is his first feature film to his credit, and he has written a dynamite script. Really, other than a couple of small places of slowness and one small place of a continuity issue, this screenplay was incredible. Most seasoned feature film writers couldn't produce a better scripted film which is ironic. If this is his first feature film, he will undoubtedly receive more work. This film is very similar to Payne's style, which tells me that he must've influenced Hemingson. This film introduces Dominic Sessa and he gave an impressive performance where he will certainly receive more work as well.
This is a film about underdogs--three of them in this film, and watching them all connect in a place where they have no way out but to interact, lest they spend the next two weeks staring at one another, was crafted well. Watching these individuals slowly, but realistically transform is interesting and compelling, where, after a point, the audience just wants to stand up and cheer these people in their quest to 'find themselves'.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: R 133mins.
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