Why can't all so-called family movies be like Holes?
Based on the award-winning, best-selling children's book by Louis Sachar -- who wrote the screenplay -- Holes is a great story that has survived the transition from words to pictures.
Shia LaBeouf stars as Stanley Yelnats IV, an adolescent whose endless bad luck has been attributed to a family curse. Stanley is accused of stealing a pair of running shoes and winds up in Camp Green Lake, a juvenile facility where all the boys spend their days digging holes in the desert.
Camp Green Lake is run by a pack of worthless adults: Jon Voight plays the overseer; Sigourney Weaver is the Warden and Tim Blake Nelson is the camp doctor.
Stanley's fellow felons are played by Khleo Thomas, Byron Cotton and Brendan Jefferson, among others. These boys, always digging holes, become a team of sorts. But what are they really digging for?
At the same time that Stanley's current story unfolds, the past is illustrated in flashback. Stanley's family curse begins long, long ago in 18th century Latvia, then moves to America's Wild West. (This brings Patricia Arquette into the film as Kissing' Kate Barlow: Outlaw, with Dule Hill as the man she loves.)
Eventually, the past and the present meet up at Camp Green Lake. Holes is a treasure hunt based on kismet, serendipity, synchronicity and all the other measures of chance and strange luck that rule a child's imagination.
This film is a pixilated bit of entertainment. Holes is a witty puzzle that brings people and events full circle in a way that delights children. And thrills them. And scares them.
It has a death-defying escape scene and terrifying killer lizards, not to mention terrifyingly funny hamming-it-up from Jon Voight and other adults in the cast.
The best thing about Holes is an intelligent script. The next best thing about Holes is that it never talks down to its youthful audience -- it's grown-up entertainment for kids.
The adults who accompany them may get more of the subtle jokes, but the adventure and magic in the tale will appeal to all age groups.
(This film is rated PG)
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