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Poster (c) Walt Disney Pictures
Holes is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It appears to be a simple Disney kids film, but turns into so much more. Of course, that’s where it’s dragged down: when it tries to be a Disney film. At times it has quality of older films that are PG because there’s not much offensive material in it, but at times it seems like a film fit for a Disney audience. When I went into Holes, I expected the script to be mutilated from the book, even though it’s written by the author Louis Sachar. However, it’s similar to the book, except with both a few welcome differences and a few unwelcome ones.
At times, Holes has some very believable, palpable drama. You could feel along with the characters, no matter how undeveloped they were. However, Disney couldn’t make a movie that was very good for the ENTIRE movie. Nope, they had to through in some scatological humor, much revolving around a character with the nickname of “Armpit”. Also, the film relied too much on flashback for most of the movie. It had uneven cuts, with much of the time in the middle of the movie revolving around the flashback, with not enough time at the present time. Although Holes wouldn’t have worked without flashback, there was just too much of it (and it did a Fight Club: a flashback in a flashback).
The plot revolves around Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf). Every man in his family is named Stanley because it is Yelnats backwards. For some reason, this didn’t work in the movie. He’s accused for stealing shoes donated to an orphanage by baseball star Clyde Livingston (Rick Fox), while they just hit him on the head. Stanley thinks they fell from the sky. When he goes to court, Stanley chooses between prison or Camp Green Lake. Because his family is poor (his father is working on an invention to cure the smell of shoes), and he’s never been to camp before, he chooses Camp Green Lake. Instead of an actual camp, however, they have to dig a five by five hole every day to “build character”. But is there some ulterior motive?
Holes is a very enjoyable movie, with part drama, part comedy (however crude and PG it may be), part thriller, part action. I liked to go along with Stanley, and the other denizens at the camp. However, there are a few fatal mistakes. First off, Sachar took out the most important part of Stanley’s character development. In the book, Stanley was an overweight and teased kid, which helps with his change throughout the book. However, here he’s a scrawny kid, and it doesn’t help out his character. Also, at the end, Sachar tries to wrap everything up in a nice little package and express ship it to our hearts, while in the book “you have to fill in the holes yourself.” It wasn’t that hard to do in the book, so why would movie audiences have a tough time?
The acting was good from the adult players, who include Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Tim Blake Nelson, Henry Winkler, Siobhan Fallon, Patricia Arquette, and Eartha Kitt, who plays wacky fortuneteller Madame Zeroni. I really like Nelson, and he reminded me of his role in O Brother, Where Art Thou, although I haven’t seen that movie for a long time. Weaver seemed obligated to do this film, while Winkler needed the role. All of them were good. I recognized Fallon as Beatrice from Men in Black, she has a distinctive voice. Overall, I would say Holes is a good movie, but you will like it more if you haven’t read the book.
Rated PG for violence, mild language and some thematic elements.
Review Date: June 20, 2003