Paul Giamatti (‘The Holdovers’) will finally get an Oscar nomination for an Alexander Payne film
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Paul Giamatti turned in one of the best performances of 2004 in Alexander Payne‘s “Sideways.” He played Miles, a depressed writer who takes a trip to Santa Barbara County to celebrate his friend’s (Thomas Haden Church) engagement. He reap bids at the Critics Choice, SAG and Golden Globes awards. It was shock when he was snubbed at the Oscars in favor of eventual winner Jamie Foxx (“Ray”) plus Don Cheadle (“Hotel Rwanda”), Johnny Depp (“Finding Neverland”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Aviator”), and Clint Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby”).
The academy can finally rectify that oversight as Giamatti and Payne have reunited for “The Holdovers,” which Focus Features is releasing on Oct. 27. Giamatti is a curmudgeon of a teacher forced to stay behind and look after students staying at his school throughout the holiday period. Dominic Sessa and Da’Vine Joy Randolph are great in supporting roles but it’s Giamatti who is the star of the picture. He once again demonstrates his knack of delivering great dialogue and handles his character’s considerable arc with aplomb. Yes, he excels in the grumpier, more comedic aspects of the role but also adds depth and warmth to the emotional parts. Critics agree, Giamatti is on top form here.
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Stephen Farber (The Hollywood Reporter) opined: “The role of the cranky academic could easily be a stock character, but Giamatti invests the role with bilious wit as well as a few fleeting glimpses of vulnerability. It is difficult not to share Hunham’s disdain for his pretentious faculty colleagues and spoiled students, but we gradually come to realize the disappointments that underlie his cynicism.”
Maureen Lee Lenker (EW) observed: “Giamatti and Payne bring out the best in each other. Giamatti’s curmudgeonly growl is the ideal instrument for Mr. Hunham, a teacher whose own passion for history can not outweigh the bitterness of a life littered with broken dreams. Exasperated crank is certainly within Giamatti’s wheelhouse, but he also lends Hunham a piercing humanity and a potent well of loneliness. In his hands, Hunham is as deep as the snowfall outside the Barton campus windows.”
Katarina Docalovich (Paste Magazine) proclaimed: “Giamatti plays the role of Paul so blissfully, one has to wonder if he missed his true calling in a career scolding students for having their shirts untucked. The petty joy Paul derives in the students’ suffering and the genuine pain he encounters when he sees Angus in distress feel equally real.”
Not surprisingly, Giamatti is in our predicted nominees for Best Actor alongside Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), and Colman Domingo (“Rustin”). However, Giamatti is in fifth spot and there are a couple of actors pushing to overtake him, none more so than Jeffrey Wright for “American Fiction.”
However, Giamatti is long overdue a Best Actor bid. He is one of the most reliable actors around and has shown he is capable of both turning in key supporting roles as a character actor as well as carrying an entire movie himself as an out-and-out leading man. His versatility is what makes him so great and, as such, he has a plethora of impressive performances in major, beloved movies including “Saving Private Ryan,” “Man on the Moon,” “Private Life,” “The Illusionist,” “The Ides of March,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Saving Mr. Banks,” “Love & Mercy,” and “Straight Outta Compton.” These are a variety of genres and styles and Giamatti is fantastic in all of them. However, his most revered performance out of all of them, perhaps, is his supporting turn in “Cinderella Man.”
Giamatti played boxing manager Joe Gould in this Ron Howard biopic opposite Russell Crowe as James J. Braddock. Giamatti earned his sole Oscar nomination for this role, landing a Best Supporting Actor bid in 2006. He lost to George Clooney for “Syriana.” .
With “The Holdovers,” Giamatti is back with Payne doing what he does best, giving us an eccentric character with a troubled live looking for some kind of redemption. These kinds of roles, particularly ones with 180 degree arcs like Giamatti has here, often get nominated for Best Actor. Previous performers who earned bids for similar parts include Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin” in 2023), Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory” in 2020), Viggo Mortensen (“Green Book” in 2019), and Mortensen again in 2017 (“Captain Fantastic”). It’s a similar role to his one in “Sideways,” which brought him so much acclaim. This time, however, the academy needs to get it right and reward Giamatti with a Best Actor nomination.
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