Cynical and sardonic Classical History Teacher Paul Hunham (Giamatti), draws the short straw and is instructed at short notice by the Headmaster to be the designated faculty chaperone for the festive recess. Also staying over at Barton Academy is Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), The Cafeteria Manager, who is still in mourning from the tragic loss of her 20 year old son and Barton alumnae in the Vietnam War. Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) becomes the third stayover boarder. The four other remaining students get whisked off by one of their fathers in a helicopter at the last minute, when he comes to collect his sport-obsessed son.
As the fortnight painfully plods on, the walls slowly start to come down between the angst-ridden, but decently academic Tully and the teacher and subject he initially hates the most in Hunham. The grating unease is soothed somewhat by the freshly-cooked hot meals provided by straight talking Mary.
The stark and massively empty school campus seems like an excruciatingly lonely place, but soon there are a few changes of location. A Christmas Eve party at the Headmaster's Assistant, Miss Lydia Crane's, house (Carrie Preston) - and a 'field trip' to Boston for some historical museum crawling (while Mary stays with her pregnant sister). Oh and watch out for an incredibly cringeworthy scene at a local hospital.
I really enjoyed this straightforwardly told story. By the look and feel, it could easily have been made in the era in which it is set. A beautifully-paced and brilliantly-written tale of three very different souls, whose individual family circumstances threw them together at a prestigious all-male New England boarding school over the extremely snowy Christmas holidays of 1970. Wonderfully played by all and definitely deserving of the many plaudits it has already received.
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