As a title, that of “Those who stay” Not only does it adapt to the plot offered by Alexander Payne’s latest film, but it also concentrates the essence of most of the characters that have populated the filmography of the Nebraska director. Those who stay, those abandoned, those who do not advance, those who have reached the end.
It could be the retiree “About Schmidt”the old man from (his masterpiece?) “Nebraska” or the depressed, alcoholic, failed divorcee “Between glasses”. It is not social cinema, nor committed, at least as we understand it, since its protagonists do not belong to the lower classes, but it speaks of society and the patterns that govern it, of life experience, of its disappointments, of its small joys and its great disappointments.
Now it’s the turn of an old-fashioned private school teacher (perfect Paul Giamatti, who was already the protagonist of “Between glasses”, also a high school teacher, stranded there), feared by the students, despised by his classmates and reluctantly tolerated by the principal. Furthermore, to top it off and just like ogres, witches and other villains in traditional children’s stories, he is physically marked: an eye defect, excessive sweating and a progressive bad body odor stigmatize him. Lonely, he has to stay at the center during Christmas watching over those few students who cannot go with their families, especially such a brilliant and wayward pupil. Both will learn to understand each other, to give in.
As usual with Payne, “Those who stay” It is a tragicomic story that is deeply human and balanced in its tone. The characters that make up it – not only the aforementioned couple, but also the black cook, another who stays to feed them – are built from the empathy deserved by those who have lived and suffered (or who are beginning to do so). They are understood with their errors, vices and virtues, a trait that makes Alexander Payne a humanist.