Fridge / The Holdovers

• Paul Hunham is basically Ebenezer Scrooge.
  • From his first shot hunched over a desk, doing paper work at the last second before Christmas break, Hunham evokes Scrooge. Hunham is totally unconcerned with Christmas, and his reaction to the Christmas spirit in others falls just short of "bah, humbug." Like Scrooge, he wants his subordinates (students) to work through the holiday, and only allows them leave after some begging. He's stingy with heat, despised by those who know him, and has no loved ones to spend the holiday with, though, like Scrooge, he did once have a fiancé. Like Scrooge, his journey in the film brings out a little Christmas spirit in him.
  • The film doesn't cleanly follow the "visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come" template, but it does explore Hunham's past which led him to be the man he is. Hunham sees in Angus some of his own traits, while in turn Hunham represents a possible future for Angus if he continues on his path. The spirit of "Christmas Present", opening your mind to the lives of those around you, is explored as the central characters visit the world outside the immediate Barton ecosystem, whether that be Lydia Crane's Christmas party, Mary and her sister's family, the disabled Vietnam veterans who aren't much older than Angus, or the more working class people they come across in Boston.
  • The former Barton headmaster Hunham looked up to could be his Fezziwig.
  • Any number of characters past (Curtis) or present could be poor Tiny Tim, but Angus is the best fit, in addition to showing traits of Hunham himself. As Angus posits he will go to military academy and then Vietnam, should he be expelled from Barton, he is the character who theoretically would not have survived to see another Christmas, had Hunham/Scrooge not had a change of heart.