Holes Review

Based on the barnstormingly successful children's book by Louis Sachar, "Holes" is one of those films that will not only have even the most cool of kids cheering in the aisles but will have the adults happily joining in too. Far from being a simple story, it's the densely plotted tale of Stanley Yelnats, an unlikely young hero whose family curse comes visiting one day in the shape of a pair of baseball shoes falling from the heavens and landing on his head. Unfairly arrested and convicted for stealing the said shoes, poor old Stanley gets shipped off to juvenile detention centre Camp Green Lake - which he soon finds is anything but green and unfortunately involves no lake. Instead he's confronted with an arid, lifeless Death Valley of a desert and is mysteriously forced to dig holes by the camp's director - known only as "The Warden" - and her two right-hand men, the tyrannical Mr Sir and unctuous Dr Pendanski. But quite what they're digging for is never made clear…

Interwoven with not one but two other storylines that transport the audience from modern-day Texas to the Old West, to 18th-century Latvia and back again, Stanley's sandy adventures are brilliantly handled by "The Fugitive" helmer Andrew Davies with help from a sharp, witty and touching script written by Sachar himself. Shia Lebouef - the lucky boy who was adopted by Charlie's Angels in their sequel smash hit earlier this summer - is superb as the ever-sympathetic Stanley while his fellow Green Lake camp mates are perfectly played by an impressive young ensemble cast. But the highest praise must be preserved for Sigourney Weaver as the terrifying Warden and Jon Voight who turns in a hilariously repulsive performance as Mr Sir to make a pitch-perfect, multi-layered morality tale that's not just for kids.