Creating a children's movie is a difficult task that carries with it a great deal of responsibility. To be a success in the box office, the film must appeal to both the children it is produced for and the parents who must chaperone and finance the outing. The humor and subject matter must be simple and clean enough for the very young, while still entertaining for the not-so-young. The plot must move quickly enough to keep the audience interested, but not be so convoluted that people get confused.
Finally, there are always brownie points for providing a moral -- something to make the parents feel like their children's brains and souls were not wasted for two hours. Very rarely does a movie meet all these criteria. Even Disney's animated films, usually an old standby, have been disappointing in recent years.
There is a movie in theaters right now, however, that not only meets these aforementioned requirements, but is the best children's movie I have seen this year. That's a credible statement because believe me -- I'm almost the only person on The Cavalier Daily staff that reviews kids' movies.
"Holes," rated PG for mild language and a moment or two of pseudo-violence, is incredibly well done. Based on Louis Sachar's 1998 novel, the film does a great job of being entertaining, intriguing, and -- wonder of wonders -- there might even be a morality lesson squeezed in there. Even my boyfriend, whom I dragged along -- so as not to be that creepy, childless adult in the kids' movie -- deemed "Holes" "not bad," although I had to pay for his ticket and promise to buy him whatever he wanted from Wendy's to convince him to accompany me.
The film chronicles Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LeBeouf), a wrongly accused boy sent for 18 months of juvenile detention at Camp Greenlake.Surprisingly, there is neither a lake nor anything green at Camp Greenlake, but rather dust, desert and hundreds of holes. Each prisoner at Camp Greenlake is required to dig one hole -- five feet in diameter, five feet deep --every day for "character building." If, while digging, a prisoner finds anything "interesting," he is to report it immediately to Mr. Sir (Jon Voigt), Dr. Pendanski (Tim Blake Nelson), or the Warden (Sigourney Weaver). If this hole-digging sounds a little suspicious to you, you're on to something. Stanley's day-to-day life at Camp Greenlake is explained by the splicing of the present day with flashbacks. Some flashbacks follow Stanley's great great-grandfather and the curse put on him and all his descendents by the gypsy Madame Zeroni. Other flashbacks chronicle the Wild West outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow. Other episodes follow the tragic love story of schoolteacher Katherine and salesman Sam in a small town in the Old West. By the end of the movie, all of these stories from the past and Stanley's condition of the present -- including the secret behind all of the hole-digging -- come together.
I loved this movie. The acting, even that of the child-actors, was excellent. The part of Mr. Sir is but one of many in an interesting line of acting choices for Voigt, but he plays the swaggering, drawling overseer quite well. Nelson is hilarious as usual in his role as "psychiatrist" and counselor Mr. Pendanski. Sigourney Weaver is perfect as the cruel, ruthless Warden. These adult roles are rounded off well with small parts by Henry Winkler and Siobhan Fallon as Mr. and Mrs. Yelnats.
I must say, however, that even more than the big-name adults in the film, I fell in love with Shia LeBeouf. To anyone who doesn't watch the Disney Channel's "Even Stevens" (which even I don't, so why would you?), LeBeouf is an unknown. He proves his worth, however, as he shines in this leading role as the good-hearted (but sometimes distracted) mop-headed Stanley.
Go see this movie. If you have nieces, nephews or younger siblings, take them along. But even if you don't have them as an excuse, you won't be sorry you saw "Holes"
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