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Poster for Holes

Holes

Some secrets are too big to keep hidden.

2003 · 1h 57m · PG Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Family
Directed by Andrew Davis

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Overview

After being wrongfully convicted for stealing a pair of shoes, Stanley Yelnats is sent away to Camp Green Lake, a boys detention facility where inmates are forced to dig holes all day in the hot desert sun as a form of character building. But Stanley and the other boys start to unravel a mystery, linked with the camps tough-as-nails warden —and possibly Stanley’s family itself.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
78%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Brims with storytelling flourishes and gently deployed life lessons that even accompanying adults may dig.

Ed Park, Village Voice
Rotten

[T]here's too much going on, and none of it is executed well enough to recommend.

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
Fresh

It's smart, strange, unpredictable, and defies the formulas that typically define this sort of motion picture.

James Berardinelli, ReelViews
Fresh

A wonderfully dark fairy tale.

Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Fresh

One can't help but feel thankful that the movie doesn't always go the expected route, that the characters have a little more depth to them than average, and that the complexity, which is the movie's basic weakness, is also its fundamental virtue.

Philip Kennicott, Washington Post

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