The movie opens as Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf), scion of the endlessly unlucky Yelnats family, is unfairly convicted of stealing a pair of shoes from an orphanage. He is sent off to Camp Green Lake, a reform facility for juvenile delinquents located in the dusty heat at the heart of a Texan desert. The warden at the reform center (Sigourney Weaver) forces the boys to dig holes, supposedly to build character. Stanley (soon known as Caveman to comrades with nicknames like Zigzag and Armpit) finds himself trying to maintain his sense of decency without running afoul of either the boys' code of behavior or the demands of the corrupt adults in charge of the camp.
Mixed up in the everyday drama of camp life is the history that permeates Stanley's life and the Green Lake area. There is a curse on Stanley's family that gives them their bad luck. And it turns out the now-desolate desert is not so blank or innocent. The dust-covered camp scenes are balanced by flashbacks from the days when the miles of Green Lake sand were under a lush, thriving lake. We also witness the story of the Yelnats' curse, which has its roots with Stanley's great-grandfather "in the old country" of Eastern Europe.
The movie slowly reveals that the two histories, those of Green Lake and the Yelnats heritage, are interwoven. We watch as the stories twist themselves together and stretch tentacles down to the present day, where a group of boys labor under the merciless Texas sun.
The screenwriter (Louis Sachar, who adapted his own novel) respects the viewer's intelligence. He doesn't hammer home the complex story with chunks of obvious explanation. Instead, with excellent use of flashbacks, bits of the story are dangled in front of us, leaving an exciting sense of confusion as the pieces slowly fall into place while we try to figure out what it all means. There are elements of a ghost story in "Holes," but it does not feel hokey or false; it works within the context of the movie. And throughout the film there are clever flashes of wit that keep it rolling along.
The best scenes are the ones set at Camp Green Lake itself. Sachar has a great ear for dialogue-the banter among the boys sounds genuine. The actors all turn in excellent performances, which is unusual in movies with many young actors. In particular the two leads, LaBeouf and Khleo Thomas (who plays Zero, Stanley's ally and friend), give subtle and nuanced performances. The friendship between Zero and Stanley feels real, and the exchanges between them are quite effective. The adults in the camp are basically caricatures, but they are, nonetheless, convincing caricatures. The gruff, mean overseer is played with gravelly-voiced enthusiasm by Jon Voight, while Tim Blake Nelson plays the insidiously cruel camp doctor with gleeful energy.
The cinematography is imaginative and engaging; cinematographer Stephen St. John and director Andrew Davis matched different styles of filming to the different settings. The dust and heat of the desert are sometimes emphasized with a dramatic and almost surreal look, while in the comfortable crowdedness of the Yelnats apartment the camera zooms in very close to its subjects.
With so much going for it, I am sad to report that "Holes" is only three quarters of an excellent movie. The loose ends are all tied up too neatly and happily, and the whole enterprise descends into Hollywood schmaltz. I suppose that a movie marketed toward children had to make concessions to the kid's movie formula, but given the skill with which most of the movie was made, it seems as though the ending could have been, and should have been, more solid and satisfying. One suspects studio executives' clumsy hands interfering with Sachar and Davis.
The disappointing finish initially leaves behind a sickly-sweet taste, but once that flavor wears off the viewer is left with the memory of a mostly exciting, well-constructed and highly entertaining movie.