[Quick Summary: A cranky teacher, a grieving cook, and sullen student stay at a 1970s boarding school over Christmas break.]
I liked this script much more than I thought.
I think it's due to the unexpected combinations of humor and humanity.
I particularly liked the scene below in which Mary, the cook, pours out her heart. It's especially poignant because of the two moments of irony (see comments):
INT. KITCHEN STAFF COMMON ROOM - CONTINUOUS
...MARY: I took this job when Curtis was little, so he could get a good education. You know, he flourished here.
PAUL: He was a great kid. I had him one semester. Very insightful.
MARY: Uh-huh. He hated you. He said you were a real asshole.
PAUL: Well, like I said, sharp kid. Insightful. [This is one of my favorite ironic lines. She was blunt, and he appreciated the truth.]
MARY: He had his heart set on Swarthmore, and he had the grades, but I didn't have the money. Even with financial aid it wasn't enough. So when he got called up, no student deferment, off he went. You know what he said to me? He said: "Hey ma, look at the upside. When I get discharged, I can go to college on the GI Bill." College. (keeping it together) And here we are. With my Curtis in the cold ground, and those boys safe and warm in their beds. It's like you said. "Life is like a henhouse ladder." That's right -- I can hear everything you're saying from the kitchen. Especially that little Kountze kid. Crown prince of all the little assholes.
Silence, which is broken by APPLAUSE from the studio audience. [This juxtaposed sound afterwards is so wonderfully ironic. It's an audible contrast to what she's just said (mourning vs. happy). Also, it encapsulated my visceral reaction to her words: bittersweet, funny.]
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: This is a sharply observed story about coping with sadness, which might've been too depressing, if not for its unusual ways to insert irony.
The Holdovers (2023)(undated)
by David Hemington
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