Dir. Andrew Davis, 2003, USA, 117 mins
Cast:
Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Tim Blake Nelson, Shia LaBeouf
A much loved and respected book in the US, Louis Sachar's best selling novel Holes arrives in Britain not quite as highly anticipated in the way that each Harry Potter epic is greeted by keen young readers.
Like an American Roald Dahl tale, the film features an outlandish plot, cruel and greedy adults and kids who triumph over adversity. The narrative is based on a series of mysteries involving a curse placed on a family and a strange correctional camp for young offenders. It is at this camp that the youths are ordered to dig the holes of the title. To say any more would be to rob the film of the spontaneity that the narrative relies on, and to come to the film knowing any of its secrets would be nothing less than party to a crime.
Despite featuring some big names, Holes is a film where the story is the star. The plot involves a series of coincidences and strange scenarios which would seem unconvincing if described, but over the course of the story make perfect and logical sense. Filled with twists and turns it is impossible to accurately guess where the narrative will take you, indeed the climax of the film is as difficult to predict from the scene before as it is from the start.
Although the younger roles are taken by unknown faces, the adults are played by some of Hollywood's heavy hitters. Sigourney Weaver and Jon Voight play their parts with obvious relish managing to be larger than life without being over the top. Quirky support comes from Tim Blake Nelson, Eartha Kitt and, the Fonz himself, Henry Winkler. Be sure to look out for Patricia Arquette, an actress long undervalued, who contributes a great performance in a particularly sensitive role.
Director Andrew Davis, who is best known for action thrillers such as The Fugitive and Under Siege has directed a film that never talks down to its audience. Holes doesn't contain a non-stop barrage of special effects and other such noise, instead relying on excellent storytelling, strong performances and genuine broad family appeal.
"It was just a charming piece of material," says director Andrew Davis, explaining why he chose to break away from the action thriller genre for which he is known. "You get pegged as an action director and people think that's all you can do, so this is a way of showing people that you can do something different. I loved the characters that I was going to get to work with and this film does have a parallel to The Fugitive. It's about an unjustly accused man so there is empathy there and that appealed a lot. My family is from Eastern Europe and there are issues about civil rights and things in the story that I related to and participated in during the sixties. It is also a great puzzle piece and a mystery that has a great culmination when things come together. I think that books, which have always been the source material for movies, are appealing to young people. This is a very complicated story but it is also accessible. Strong narratives are the key to good movies. So many movies are eye candy these days so it's nice to be able to have a movie that has a puzzle, heart and soul and a lot of this going on in it."
Commenting on how to achieve and encourage such strong performances from what are in effect inexperienced kids in the film Davis adds: "I tried to work with kids who had a reality to them. I like working in the world of reality although this film has magic in it. I wanted to cast kids who you really could believe would be in that camp and so the most important part was finding those kids. Shia LaBoeuf, who plays the lead, set the tone for the level of behaviour that was required to be a professional actor. When you have Jon Voight and Sigourney Weaver and all the real pros there it gives the kids an eye opening experience of what it meant to be in a movie. I asked them to improvise because I've always worked with actors who can improvise. Tommy Lee Jones improvised a lot on The Fugitive. Each kid brought something to the part that wasn't necessarily in the script."
Although Davis dismissed the "silly internet rumour" that he would be reunited with Steven Seagal on Under Siege 3, he did state that his next film will be based in Europe, perhaps reflecting his roots, and most definitely will not be of the action genre.
Jonathan Wilkins
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