Holes

Holes

This movie was a birthday gift from my good friends Rick and Cheryl. I hated the advertisements for this movie, all they said was "You know the book, now watch the movie!" I had never heard of the book, so why would I want to watch the movie when the advertisements tell me nothing about it? Fortunately for me Cheryl knew the book and loved it and knew I loved movies, so she and Rick got it for me. I loved the movie from the very beginning. I didn't know who Shia LeBeouf was at the time, I had not yet started watching reruns of Even Stevens on the Disney Channel, but I thought he was a great young actor from watching him in this movie. Add in Eartha Kitt, Jon Voight, Sigourney Weaver, and Henry Winkler, how can you go wrong?

For those, like me, who had never read the book and who have not yet see the movie, this movie is about curses. The main character, Stanley Yelntas IV, is wrongfully accused of stealing a baseball player's charity donation because of a curse of bad luck that has affected his family for 5 generations. He is sentenced to go to a rehabilitation camp for boys which used to be a lake (Camp Greenlake is the name of the camp) but was cursed to dry up and never rain again when the townspeople lynched an African-American onion farmer named Sam 100 years prior.

A Spoiler Curse:

And the warden of the camp has been searching for buried treasure after her father and his father were cursed to never find it in the desert that used to be the lake.

By the end of the movie all the curses are lifted, within 24 hours of each other, actually. Very cool.

Let's watch:

The first part of the movie sets up how things are falling into place due to destiny. A spot opens up at the camp. A pair of shoes falls from the sky and hits Stanley on the head. When he is found with the shoes he is arrested for stealing them. Stanley's father is working on a cure for foot odor so stinky shoes are his life's work (which prompted Stanley to keep the shoes after they hit him). Once at camp Stanley meets another camper called Zero who never talks but when he hears about Stanley's arrest for the shoes asks if the shoes had red X's on them, which they did, revealing that he is somehow connected to the shoes and/or Stanley. What seems like a string of bad luck is actually leading to something great, it's just that nobody knows it yet.

Jon Voight's character, Mr. Sir, is so funny. The character himself is not funny, he doesn't say pithy things or do any slapstick, but the way that Voight portrays him is just so funny. Just prior to the start of the movie the character had given up smoking so he's on edge all the time from the nicotine withdrawal. He has a crazy look in his eyes, crazy hair, and he acts rather crazy at times, it's impossible not to laugh.

I have to say it's really weird seeing Dule Hill without James Roday. I know this movie was made before Psych, and I watched it before Psych, but after 6 seasons with those two together all the time, I just can't get over Dule without James.
It is really sweet seeing the romance between the onion farmer Sam (Dule Hill) and the schoolteacher Miss Katherine (Patricia Arquette). They exchange bags of his best onions for jars of her spiced peaches (very important later in the movie). He then goes on to start fixing up her little schoolhouse and ends up romancing her by quoting Poe's poem Anabelle Lee.

Making of an Outlaw:

It's sad what happens to the schoolteacher, Miss Katherine. Her relationship with Sam is illegal since they are biracial in 190? Texas. The townspeople kill Sam's prized mule, Mary Lou, burn his boat that he used to row across the lake to his onion field, and and kill him. They kill him because it's against the law to for him to kiss a white woman, but when she begs them to kill her too they refuse since there's no law against her kissing him. She decides to get revenge on the sheriff by shooting him dead in his own office. She then finally gives him the kiss he asked for earlier and decides to go on a rampage across the state, stealing from banks and stage coaches to punish the state for their stupid law and stupid ways. Every time she kills a man she kisses him while wearing lipstick, leading her to be called Kissing Kate Barlow.
Earlier in the move Stanley's family remarked that his great grandfather made a fortune in the stock market, disproving his father's curse until Kissing Kate Barlow stole everything he had and left him to die in the desert (that used to be Camp Greenlake). The robbery proved that the curse was indeed active on him. Her death scene is sad. She's so tired of the life she's led, tired of the hole that never healed when they killed Sam. She talks to his ghost, talks to the mayor of the now defunct town and curses him and his family as she kills herself with a poisonous lizard.

I love the part when the curses start being broken. Stanley finally fulfills the request of the long dead fortune teller who cursed his family in the first place. Immediately things turn around for his family. The camp counselors are confronted by his family's new lawyer who finds out that the warden and her lackeys are not doing everything legally. As soon as the camp is no longer controlled by a Walker it starts to rain, ending the curse on the land. The way everything comes together in a story like this is just as awesome to me as a cosmic alignment. Everyone gets what they deserve in the end, both the good guys and the bad guys.

I've seen and enjoyed other movies with bad marketing, but I think this is my favorite. Hope it comes out on blu ray eventually, I might wear out my DVD copy.