Holes

You take a bad boy, make him dig holes all day long in the hot sun, it makes him a good boy. That’s their way of thinking over at Camp Green Lake. This is told by Mr. Sir, the manager of a strange juvenile correction center that is in the middle of the desert, surrounded by countless holes, each one five feet deep and five feed wide. It is the verdict for the boys sentenced there to dig one hole a day, day after day. Just like Sisyphus in Greek Mythology, who was punished to forever roll a rock to the top of a hill so that it could roll back down again, they are stuck in a tiring loop.

“Holes,” which tells their story, is a 2003 movie so strange that it escapes completely from the family genre and goes into fantasy. Roger Ebert said in his review, “Like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," it has fearsome depths and secrets. Based on the much-honored young adult's novel by Louis Sachar, it has been given the top-shelf treatment: The director is Andrew Davis ("The Fugitive") and the cast includes not only talented young stars but also weirdness from adults such as Jon Voight, Sigourney Weaver, Tim Blake Nelson and Patricia Arquette.”

At a time when mainstream action is firmly stuck inside formulas, maybe there’s more freedom to be found in a teenager’s journey. Ebert mentioned, “"Holes" jumps the rails, leaves all expectations behind, and tells a story that's not funny ha-ha but funny peculiar. I found it original and intriguing. It'll be a change after dumbed-down, one-level family stories, but a lot of kids in the upper grades will have read the book, and no doubt their younger brothers and sisters have had it explained to them. (If you doubt the novel's Harry Potter-like penetration into the youth culture, ask a seventh-grader who Armpit is.)” The story is about Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf) as a good kid who gets blamed for a crime that isn’t his fault, and is sent to Camp Green Lake, which is more than a desert lodge surrounded by holes. There he meets his fellow prisoners and the threatening supervisory staff: Mr. Sir (Jon Voight) and Mr. Pendanski (Tim Blake Nelson) report to The Warden (Sigourney Weaver), and both men are completely scared from her. All three adult actors take their work seriously. They don’t relax because this is a family movie but make characters of dark comic threat. Voight’s work is really detailed. Watch him spit in his hand to slick back his hair.

“Holes” has no less than two flashback stories. We see that Stanley comes from a long line of Yelnatses (all named Stanley, because it is the last name spelled backward). From his father (Hendry Winkler) and grandfather (Nathan Davis), he learns of an ancient family curse, going back many generations to an angry fortune teller (Eartha Kitt). The other flashback tells the real reason the Warden wants the boys to dig holes. It has to do with the buried treasure of a legendary bandit queen named Kissin’ Kate Barlow (Arquette).

There is a link between these two back-stories, given by Zero, played by Khleo Thomas, who becomes Stanley’s best friend and shares a disturbing journey with him. Zero runs away, despite Mr. Sir’s warning that there is no water for miles around, and when Stanley joins him, they find some ancient clues and modern surprises.

Ebert admitted, “LaBeouf and Khleo Thomas are both new to me, although LeBeouf is the star of a cable series, "Even Stevens."” They carry the movie with an unforced verdict and avoid playing cute. As they walk the desert and find the keys to their past and present destinies, they form a friendship, which, despite the fantastical story, looks like the real thing.

The whole movie gives a surprising verdict. Ebert declared, “No wonder young readers have embraced it so eagerly: It doesn't condescend, and it founds its story on recognizable human nature.” There are all sorts of feelings, such as the uneasy tension between the Warden and Mr. Sir, that add strength and charm. Voight and Weaver don’t just play caricatures.

Davis has always been a director with a strong visual sense, and the look of “Holes” has a virtuous, sandy solitude. The cinematographer, Stephen St. John, thinks big, and makes his shots give an epic feel that adds weight to the story. Ebert mentioned, “I walked in expecting a movie for thirteensomethings, and walked out feeling challenged and satisfied.” Curious, how much more gown up and modern “Holes” is than “Anger Management.”

I remember seeing this book on the shelf of my fifth-grade classroom. However, I never bothered reading it because I wasn’t into long chapter books as a kid. I remember seeing commercials for this movie when it was coming out, but I never watched it. I do remember on the Disney Channel they showed a music video of the cast singing the main theme Dig It. Seeing the film, I was really surprised at how good it was, but I can’t say how much it followed the book because I never read it. Check it out on Disney+ if you have it because I think people will enjoy this.

Tomorrow I will review the “George of the Jungle” sequel in “Disney Month 2022.”