Holes (sometimes referred to as Disney's Holes) is a 2003 film based on the novel of the same title by Louis Sachar, who also wrote the screenplay, with Shia LaBeouf as the lead role of Stanley Yelnats. The film was produced by Walden Media and released by Walt Disney Pictures.
Plot
Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf) is a good-hearted teenager born to a luckless family who have been cursed for a long time. The luckiest of the Yelnats ancestors, Stanley Yelnats I (Allan Kolman), lost his fortune when outlaw "Kissin' Kate" Barlow (Patricia Arquette) steals his chest. The Yelnats blame their ancestor Elya Yelnats (Damien Luvara) from Latvia, who was cursed after breaking a promise to Madame Zeroni (Eartha Kitt) to carry her up a mountain to a fortifying river in exchange for marrying Myra Menke.
One day, Stanley is arrested and tried for falsely stealing a pair of baseball shoes that Clyde "Sweet" Livingston (Rick Fox), a famous baseball player, had donated to charity. Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp, instead of being incarcerated for his crime. He arrives to find that the "camp" is a dried-up lake run by the corrupt Warden Walker (Sigourney Weaver), her assistant Mr. Sir (Jon Voight), and camp counselor Dr. Pendanski (Tim Blake Nelson). Each day, the detainees must dig a hole 5ft deep and 5 ft in diameter in the desert to "build character", despite the danger of the sun, rattlesnakes, and yellow-spotted lizards, which can kill with a single bite. The children are told that if they find anything interesting, they may earn a day off. The inmates, known by their nicknames, include Zero (who refuses to speak to anyone, but likes to dig holes), Armpit, Zig-Zag, Squid, X-Ray and Magnet. Stanley is slowly accepted into the group, especially after allowing X-Ray to take credit for his discovery of a lipstick tube with the initials "KB", and is given the name of "Caveman". He soon creates a friendship with Zero (later revealed to be Hector 'Zero' Zeroni (Khleo Thomas) while teaching him to read.
As of the Stanley Yelnats generation, a parallel flashback story reveals of how the men's line of the Yelnats family underwent a family curse that always causes them to have difficult with luck in achieving life goals or in any parts of their lives. Stanley IV is told the story by Stanley II of how it all started from his great-great grandfather Elya Yelnats in Latvia. He worked for Morris Menke, shoveling manure out of his barn, and saw his daughter walk by, who he thought was very beautiful. However, he goes to a fortune teller, Madame Zeroni for advice about his destiny. Madame Zeroni recommends that he goes to America, where her son has gone, and that his future should be there, instead of Menke's daughter, Myra, because of how empty-headed she is. He goes to Menke to ask permission to marry his daughter and he says that this other man, Igor, that he is eating at a table with him has offered her his fattest pig (he is fat, too, by the way). So, to prove her point about his daughter, Myra, Madame Zeroni advices him to take a premature pig from a pen of pigs that she is raising, and to carry it up the mountain every day so that as the pig grows and gets fatter, he will get stronger, and that he should sing to it a certain song when it drinks water from the stream. She tells him that after the pig is full grown and gives it to Menke, then he must carry her up the mountain and sing while she drinks, so that she will regain her strength. She gives him a warning, though, that if he forgets to follow that last task, then she will curse him and his generations eternity. So, Elya gives the pig to Menke, and while having two fat pigs, one from him and the other from Igor, Menke allows his daughter to make the choice on who she chooses to marry. She is indecisive, and plays silly to decide, where the whole pig thing was even a dumb idea to begin with, as some kind of deceitful trick. In anger, Elya tells her to go ahead and marry Igor, and that his pig can just be given to her as a wedding present. So, he takes Madame Zeroni's advice and heads to America, but forgets to do the task first that she ordered him to do, if he wants to be spared the curse. And by doing so, realizes that he has just made the biggest mistake of his life, which he will always have to regret.
In another story that reveals how the whole modern story comes together, the history of Camp Green Lake is revealed. The town was once a thriving lake town with plenty of water and life. Miss Katherine, a local school teacher, is accosted by the rich landowner of the town, Warden Walker's ancestor Trout Walker, who proposes to her, but she rejects him. Miss Katherine is in love with the local onion seller Sam (Dulé Hill), an African American who helps repair her schoolhouse in exchange for her renowned spiced peaches. Among other things, Sam claims that regularly consuming onions and 'onion juice' will keep the local yellow-spotted lizards away. When Sam kisses Miss Katherine, the townspeople burn the school. Sam attempts to escape on his boat, The Mary Lou, but Trout kills Sam. In retaliation, Kate kills the local sheriff (Eric Pierpoint), who refused to help Sam, and leaves a kiss on his forehead (in lipstick), thereby beginning her life as an outlaw named "Kissin' Kate", who kisses the men she kills.
One day Stanley finds a tube of lipstick that belonged to Kissin' Kate Barlow (Miss Katherine), but he gives it to X-ray because X-ray hadn't had a day off in six months. X-ray gets an entire day off for the tube. Then Armpit tries to pass off a Stove knob as something he found, but the Warden knows better, and Armpit's joke cost him a week of no showers privileges.
After Dr. Pendanski insults Hector, he retaliates by hitting him with his shovel and runs away. After some deliberation, Stanley sets out to help Hector and finds him taking shelter under the remains of Sam's boat, The Mary Lou. Zero, now stranded in the desert, offers him some "sploosh", old jars of Miss Katherine's spiced peaches which had been left on the boat. The sploosh makes Hector sick, and out of desperation, Stanley heads over to a mountain, called "God's Thumb", remembering that after Stanley Yelnats I had been robbed and abandoned by Kissin' Kate Barlow in the middle of the desert, he survived many days in the dryness by seeking refuge on the mountain.
Meanwhile, Walker decides to presume Hector dead by deleting his files. Stanley carries Hector up the mountain where they find a field of onions and a source of water, helping them regain strength for several days. Unknowingly, Stanley breaks the family curse because Hector Zeroni happens to be a descendant of Madame Zeroni. When he carries Hector to the top of the mountain, sings to him, and lets him drink from the stream that runs uphill, he fulfills the promise made by Elya centuries earlier. Moments later, after Hector has woken up, he reveals he is the reason Stanley was sent to Camp Green Lake. He reveals that since he is homeless, he had been at the homeless shelter where many things (including Sweetfeet's shoes) had been donated. Because he did not know the shoes were famous, he took the shoes and walked off with them. He then heard sirens coming; thinking they were after him, he took off the shoes and tossed them over the bridge, thus leading to the incident which got Stanley sent to Camp Green Lake, as the shoes had fallen on Stanley's head, which was at the beginning of the movie. Stanley thinks it is destiny that they met. Then a flashback comes to the screen: Kate Barlow, now older, is found in the middle of the now dried-up lake by a pair of husband-and-wife bounty hunters: one of her former students along with Trout Walker (whom the student has married). They order Kate to hand over the Yelnats treasure, but she tells them that they "can dig for a hundred years, and will never find it." Kate allows herself to get bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard on the arm, she suffers for a while and soon dies.
Meanwhile, as Stanley breaks his family curse his father finally finds the solution to an odor-eliminating mixture that he has been trying all his life to create - the addition of peaches and onions. Stanley and Zero decide to go back to Camp Green Lake to investigate the hole in which Stanley had found the tube of lipstick, feeling lucky all of a sudden. They dig deeper into the hole and uncover a chest. Warden Walker and Mr. Sir discover them and attempt to take the chest away from Stanley and Zero until they notice that yellow-spotted lizards have climbed onto the boys.
When the group is discovered the next morning by the Attorney General (Ray Baker) and Stanley's lawyer Carla Morengo (Roma Maffia), Walker attempts to explain that the chest was hers, at which point Stanley jumps out of the hole to confront her with Hector behind him. They are still alive due to the fact that yellow-spotted lizards are averse to the onions they had been eating. Hector reveals that "Stanley Yelnats" is written on the front of the chest.
While back at camp, the lawyer finds out that there is no file of Hector. One of the cops notices Mr. Sir's (who was revealed to be Marion Sevillo) possession of a gun which is a violation of his parole. When Warden Walker states that she had no knowledge of this, Mr. Sir ended up blurting that Dr. Pedanski isn't a real camp therapist. The Attorney General then declares Camp Greenlake under his jurisdiction as Marion, Warden Walker, and Dr. Pendanski are arrested. As Stanley is beginning to leave, rain falls on Camp Green Lake. Walker, Marion, and Dr. Pendanski are shocked. Walker asks Stanley to show her inside the chest, but Stanley refuses. As Stanley and Zero are driven off, Warden Walker, Marion, Dr. Pedanski are read their rights by the cops.
The Yelnats family claim rightful ownership of the chest and the contents inside - banknotes, money and other items, all of whose value has increased over time. Stanley decides that half the money should go to Hector and Hector uses some of his share to find his mother (Shirley Butler) by hiring private detectives.
Camp Green Lake is temporarily closed (with all it's juvenile inmates sent home) is later converted into a girl scout camp as well. At the end, an advertisement for the odor-eliminating mixture (now named Sploosh) by Clyde Livingston is played on TV while Stanley, Clyde, and others watch.
Box office and critical reception
The movie made a 77% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, average to positive reviews. Upon release, it was considered a faithful adaption of the novel and a family-friendly movie.
Cast
References
External links
