Holes

Released 2003
Stars Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette, Shia LeBeouf, Tim Blake Nelson, Khleo Thomas, Siobhan Fallon, Henry Winkler, Dule Hill
Directed by Andrew Davis 

"You take a bad boy, make him dig holes all day long in the hot sun, it makes him a good boy. That's our philosophy here at Camp Green Lake."

So says Mr. Sir, the overseer of a bizarre juvenile correction center that sits in the middle of the desert, surrounded by countless holes, each one 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide. It is the fate of the boys sentenced there to dig one hole a day, day after day; like Sisyphus, who was condemned to forever roll a rock to the top of a hill so that it could roll back down again, they are caught in a tragic loop.

"Holes," which tells their story, is a movie so strange that it escapes entirely from the family genre and moves into fantasy. Like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," it has fearsome depths and secrets. Based on the much-honored young adult's novel by Louis Sachar, it has been given the top-shelf treatment: The director is Andrew Davis ("The Fugitive") and the cast includes not only talented young stars but also weirdness from adults such as Jon Voight, Sigourney Weaver, Tim Blake Nelson and Patricia Arquette.

Summary by Roger Ebert

For me, Jon Voight steals the show. He doesn't have a lot of screen time, but his character, Mr. Sir, is a real treat. He brings a sense of realism to the camp that makes the movie work. I liked how the camp is a little scary but not over the top. The adults are in charge, but they don't torture the boys. They just want their holes dug, and they give a good reason for it. I enjoyed the first half of the movie with its weirdness, but the second half lost steam for me. The curse and the whole kissing bandit storyline works for the kids, but I thought it kept interrupting the more interesting parts. --Bill Alward, September 28, 2003