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A private all-boys high school in Massachusetts is the setting. One teacher is asked to stay in the dormitory with the handful of students who, for whatever reasons, can't go home for the Christmas vacation. How this grumpy Classics teacher struggles through his duties toward a surprising personal fulfillment is the subject of this delightful, at times poignant American film. It takes place in the 1970's, and the movie itself feels like it could easily have been filmed then. In addition to Paul Giamatti's performance, his best since his TV work in the John Adams series years ago, there is a fresh, distinctive performance by Dominic Sessa - as the student going through a difficult ordeal involving his parents. It's one of the few excellent films about school-related subjects - Goidbye, Mr. Chips, To Sir With Love and Hoosiers come to mind. If you enjoy well-written, traditional movie making with sharply observed characters and plenty of heart, track this one down in theaters before it gets buried in streaming.

Arthur Penn's film of Steve Tesich's somewhat autobiographical screenplay is an exciting, sentimental, violent work - occasionally as excessive as the era it depicts - which is mostly the closing years of the Sixties.

Four high school friends share a peculiar bond - the 3 young men bewitched, as it were, by the same young woman. The bond they share with her is seen against the backdrop of the national upheaval that is popping up all around them: civil rights, the hippie culture, VietNam, the JFK assassination and the landing on the moon. The skill with which Penn and Tesich briefly insert glimpses of these events, while mostly focusing on the hero's family issues and life, enriches the movie throughout. The personal violence that shatters young Danilo's life is one of the most explosive shocks in any movie of its time. Anyone who lived through those years might find this nearly great film very rewarding.