| ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. | |
| PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. | |
| OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. | |
| NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Parents need to know that this movie, based on the bestseller by Louis Sachar, has an edge to it, but it's not as gritty as it could be. Portraying a teen boys' work-camp could give excuses to broach more lewd subject matter, but this movie portrays the rough and tumble without devolving into a gross-out fest. There are some moments of racial and gender tension played out in glimpses of the past (reference to a lynching, men trying to force their attentions on a woman), which might be too intense for younger viewers.
Adapted by Louis Sachar from his Newbery award-winning book, this is the story of Stanley Yelnats (Shia LaBeouf). Stanley is wrongfully accused of stealing a very valuable pair of sneakers and sentenced to a juvenile facility in the desert. Each boy there is required to dig a five-foot-deep hole every day. They are told it is to help them develop character, but could it be that the Warden (Sigourney Weaver) is looking for something that just might be buried in the endless stretch of sand that once was Green Lake?
Author Louis Sacher (who appears briefly as a man who is going bald) adapted his own story, and it retains all of the complexity and understated, offbeat charm of the book. The adult actors are excellent, especially Arquette and Dule Hill, but the kids are the center of the story, and they handle it beautifully. Khleo Thomas is wonderfully engaging as Zero. In sharp contrast to most movies directed at 10- to 15-year-olds (come to think of it, to most movies of any kind), HOLES respects the intelligence of its audience. It is even willing to challenge them, and that makes it a movie for everyone in the family to treasure.
Families can talk about its themes of fate and choice. What actions in the movie seem to have been decided by fate (or a curse) and what were decided by the characters?
How much of our present is influenced by or determined by the past?
There are even more connections between the three stories than you see
at first. How many can you find?
If you pay close attention, there is
something significant about when the boys use their real names and when
they use their tough nicknames. What does that tell you?
Why doesn't
Stanley tell the truth in his letter to his mother? How is Stanley
different at the end of the movie?
| Topics: | book characters |
| Studio: | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Director: | Andrew Davis |
| Cast: | Patricia Arquette, Shia LaBeouf, Sigourney Weaver |
| Genre: | Family and Kids |
| Run time: | 111 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | April 18, 2003 |
| DVD release date: | September 23, 2003 |
| MPAA rating: | PG |
| MPAA explanation: | violence, mild language and some thematic elements. |