The Holdovers’ stroke of genius was making its main character stink of fish

In the new Oscar-tipped drama, Paul Giamatti plays an off-putting curmudgeon with a bad stench. The success of ‘The Holdovers’ lies in its cruelty, writes Louis Chilton – there are few films out there this willing to plumb the depths of pity

Smell blessings: Paul Giamatti in ‘The Holdovers' (Universal)

The history of cinema is littered with flawed protagonists. Imperfections are, after all, what make characters relatable – from Bruce Wayne to Frances Ha. But amid the sea of rogues and misfits, there have been few that are flawed in quite the same off-putting way as Paul Hunham, the lead character of Alexander Payne’s effusively received 1970-set drama The Holdovers. Released last week, the Golden Globe-winning film is set at a mostly empty boarding school over the Christmas holidays, with classics professor Hunham (played by Paul Giamatti) serving as childminder.

Giamatti’s character is a human smorgasbord of physical abnormalities: he has a lazy eye (the prosthetic for which switches socket impishly throughout the film) and trimethylaminuria, a condition in which the body is unable to metabolise trimethylamine. Throughout the film, this latter dysfunction causes other characters to complain that he stinks of fish. The indignities don’t end there, either: The Holdovers sees Hunham weather all manner of social slings and arrows. In one particularly brutal sequence, he allows himself a glimmer of romantic optimism, attending the party of friendly fellow staff member Lydia Crane. Sitting alone at the soiree, Human is framed in a close-up, when he sees Lydia locking lips with another man. It’s a scene of biting disappointment, scratched wonderfully across Giamatti’s face. It’s a humiliation to which only we, the viewers, are privy – one more embarrassment to throw on the pile. On the surface, it’s a risky gambit making Hunham so woefully put upon. He’s repellent, both olfactorily (by chance) and interpersonally (by choice). Why, then, aren’t we repelled too?

Therein lies the greatness of The Holdovers, a film best characterised as “the kind of affable middlebrow comedy-drama they don’t seem to make anymore”. The arc of Giamatti’s character is spelt out from the film’s very early scenes: forced to take care of the young “heldover” students over Christmas – including, most significantly, a rebellious senior played by newcomer Dominic Sessa – Hunham slowly breaks out of his embittered rut, and opens himself up, however cautiously, to the possibilities of the world. It’s solid if far-from-groundbreaking material: sentimental but never quite mawkish. What tips it from being just a well-oiled Oscar-bait drama into a truly exceptional character study is just how cruel it’s prepared to get with its characters. It’s in this cruelty that the film finds its emotional core; sharp edges cut all the deeper.