Holes

Release Date: April 18, 2003
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
Director: Andrew Davis
Screenwriter: Louis Sachar
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette, Shia LaBeouf, Tim Blake Nelson, Khleo Thomas, Jacob Smith, Byron Cotton, Brenden Jefferson, Miguel Castro, Siobhan Fallon, Max Kasch, Henry Winkler, Nathan Davis, Scott Plank
Genre: Adventure
MPAA Rating: PG (for violence, mild language and some thematic elements)
Official Website: Holes.com

Plot Summary: Based on the award-winning book by Louis Sachar, "Holes" is a funny and poignant coming-of-age adventure. It tells the story of Stanley Yelnats (LaBeouf) - an unusual young hero, dogged by back luck stemming from an ancient family curse. Perpetually in the wrong place at the wrong time, Stanley is unfairly sentenced to months of detention at Camp Green Lake for a crime he didn't commit. There, he and his campmaters - Squid, Armpit, ZigZag, Magnet, X-Ray, and Zero - are forced by the menacing warden (Weaver) and her right-hand men Mr. Sir (Voight) and Mr. Pendanski (Nelson) to dig holes in order to built character. Nobody knows the real reason they're digging all these holes, but Stanley soon begins to question why the Warden is so interested in anything "special" the boys find. Stanley and his campmates must stick together and keep one step ahead of the Warden and her henchmen as they plot a daring escape from the camp to solve the myster and break the Yelnats family curse.

Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers © 2003
- Better than a cheese royale: buy one while its hot

Texas in an older kid’s movie wouldn’t usually deal with crime and punishment, at least in this vain. "Holes" does. It’s not the Rin Tin Tin of The Life of David Gale, or Harry Potter meets The Shawshank Redemption, but the none-too obvious theme about mercy revealed in deserted and lonely places is a message is worth hearing.

Although it starts off promisingly enough this drags on to an un-compelling conclusion in spite of good ideas. "Holes" takes on the plight of adolescent delinquent boys digging holes at Camp Green Leaf for eighteen months to "build character". It seems adhering to this "chain gang" mentality will help them. "Holes" doesn’t think so. Ten year olds and above are bound to identify with the character’s submission and obedience and like how they eventually deal with their predicament.

This doesn’t demand a lot from adult audiences although this is some of the more complex and sweet children’s fare on the market.

The very fact that this is set in a semblance of a camp will be immediately identifiable for many of this age group and this authentically portrays camp posing and jostling between boys that younger men of my age can remember. The historical flashbacks which include an inter-racial romance have more mature content, which is needed to help sustain the slow moving action of the foreground.

The main action reveals boys digging holes, with plenty of boyhood inter-personal conflict (fights and the peeking order), buddy-buddy chemistry (the intelligent wrongfully accused boy Stanley, the central character, takes the wrongfully accused loner, nicknamed "Zero", under his wing and they develop a friendship), and inter-relational and authoritarian politics between adults and kids suitable for the intended demographic, followed by predictable and cliché outcomes.

When the finale in "Holes" arrives it’s a disappointment and anti-climatic. The ending is blasé, the resolutions unconvincing and too easy, and ineffectually mysterious and ethereal - the film is saying that God likes to surprise us and is looking after us even in the midst of seemingly insurmountable odds, so the heart of "Holes" is in the right place; it’s the execution that’s awkward.

Still, it’s a rare family film when put alongside the likes of mainstream Hollywood machinery, like the superficial sounding Agent Cody Banks, which is James Bond for the younger market, and other children’s films that lack this feature’s sense and tone of drama and survival, like the cute Ice Age, which has a heartfelt message wrapped around a soft texture, but none of the maturity and integrity of "Holes".