Review of Holes (2003) by Byron B — 08 Jul 2009

There aren't too many great ratings for this movie, but I found it entertaining and impressive. Is it going to be seen as one of the great movies of all time? No. But on a second viewing I'm letting my 5 stars stand. Yeah, it's a very personal reaction.

I used to work in the children's department of a public library. I saw this book become critically recognized and quite popular with young readers. Technically it is a young adult book and the story is not intended for a very young audience. I haven't read the book, but at the time the movie came out I was becoming extremely interested in children's books adapted for the stage or screen. I heard some good things from people in the library business and expected the movie to be good when I went to see it. All of the elements impressed me for a young adult book adaptation.

Voight's and Winkler's characters are highly caricatured, but they commit to their performances. The one scene that made me laugh the first time, but then seemed way too unbelievable on second viewing, was when Winkler as Stanley's dad discovers the combination of onions and peaches stops shoe odor. Then when Rick Fox makes a second cameo in a commercial for this shoe odor killer, it is a bit too silly. Still all the delinquent boys at the camp digging holes work well together. The movie contains a puzzling mystery as to why Weaver, Voight and Nelson make the boys dig holes. Yeah, it's for building Character, but there's something more sinister too. You have a buddy picture with Shia LaBeouf's character Stanley and Khleo Thomas's character Zero forming a strong friendship. The story is about a whole bunch of coincidences involving third or forth generations of a few families still resolving issues in the present. Zero's great-great relative put a curse of Stanley's great-great relative. Then as Stanley flashes back to stories he's heard from his family we get a western romance between Arquette and Hill. And Arquette as "Kissin" Kate Barlow becomes a western outlaw. Weaver is the relative of a character from the past too. Through it all there is exciting adventure and amusing comedy with just enough drama.