This is yet another story about a curmudgeon with a golden heart. (“A Man Called Otto” starring Tom Hanks in a better movie. if you want to watch a curmudgeon transform.) However, Paul Giamatti, though not a hottie, deserves his 2024 Best Actor nomination for his spot-on portrayal of crotchety Professor Paul Hunham. DaVine Joy Randolph also deserves her Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in a subplot about her son fighting and dying in the Vietnam war.

However, I do not understand why this movie, set in a boarding school, was nominated for Best Picture or for Best Original screenplay since it is not that original. In fact, Richard Brody wrote in “The New Yorker” that it is a “pile of cliches reprocessed with such loving immediacy that it feels as if Payne (the director) was discovering them for himself.” I could not have summed it up better myself.

The plot of this “coming of age” story revolves around Professor Hunham’s accidental friendship with a troubled student named Angus (Dominic Sessa) which incidentally improves both of their lives when they are “holdovers” required to stay on campus during the school break in December.  One by one, the other holdovers get to the leave the dorm for various reasons until Hunham and Angus are left alone. And that is when the two men begin seeing each other as human for the first time. 

It’s obvious from the start that Professor Hunham will be transformed by Angus and will eventually show his better side as a result, but of course Hunham winds up paying a huge price for helping Angus because he broke some rules to do so. I could see that Hunham would be eventually punished from a mile away, though it was satisfying to see the both of them change for the better as a result of this hardship. As with sex, even the predictable can feel good.

If you want to see a truly exceptional coming of age story in an academic setting that also portrays a transformed curmudgeon (though it’s the student who is the curmudgeon this time) then see “Good Will Hunting.” if you haven’t already. Released over twenty-five years ago, GWH is a modern classic, and it beats the boarding school pants off of this one. – Mel.