“Holding,” while fictional, probably has its roots deeply entrenched in fact. I have never been an extra for a movie, but I imagine the people in this very funny film are a lot like the people you’d encounter in that setting. You can read that as “thoroughly dysfunctional.”
This film has no real storyline. It is just a slice-of-life of what extras go through while waiting to get on set. It’s not the situation that makes it so humorous, it’s the people. There’s the guy with the speech problem, the lady from Nebraska who is a wide-eyed wonder, the angry guy, and the professional extra who is smooth as silk and dispenses with knowledge as he reads his “Variety.” Trust me, you’d have to work pretty hard to screw this up.
My only complaint, and it is a minor one, is that the characters are almost too broad and too stereotypical. I understand the reasoning for that, but the film would’ve worked even better had they been toned down a notch or three.
I once talked a friend into becoming an extra. He did it mainly for television, and what he told me about it always stuck in my mind.
“It’s a different world in there, Doug. Nobody is real.” Like I said, the film’s roots are probably planted pretty firmly in reality.
