I am a huge Thora Birch fan, not only is she a great actress but almost all the movies she makes are excellent. One day I ran into this rare, underestimated gem of a movie at the video store, since it starred Thora I decided to rent it.
When I popped it in I just couldn't stop watching. Not once did I excuse myself for snacks or bathroom breaks, like I always do whenever a film starts to get boring. I loved the artistic direction and the great acting. I just dig those posh British accents! The Hole is one of the finer thrillers of 2001. Just when you think you know what's going to happen next, it throws you a curb. It's about a group of private-school teenagers who secretly uncover an old, World War 2 hole and decide to explore it. They accidentally get stuck when something goes wrong and the four friends are deprived of water, food and air. Liz's escape from the hole is the backbone of the story, it keeps on showing flashbacks of the event itself. Liz casts her mind back two weeks to when she was an innocent schoolgirl with a mad crush on Mike ,the son of an American rock star and the coolest guy on the planet. Not that he'd notice her, of course, with her mousy brown hair, unsophisticated clothes and uncool image. She would do absolutely anything to get his attention. It's Martin who makes everything happen. Martin -- the school weirdo, an introverted computer whiz who is as in love with Liz as she's in love with Mike. Whatever Liz wants, Martin will get, no matter what the cost to him emotionally. And it so happens that he's arranged for Mike, Mike's best friend Geoff and Frankie, the queen of the girls' dorm, to escape the boring end-of-term geography field trip and spend three days hiding out in a secret underground bunker. He will arrange for Liz to join the party. For Liz, it's a dream come true -- three days with the coolest kids in school, handsome jock Geoff, beautiful Frankie and charming Mike, her soul mate, her Prince Charming, the man she's meant to be with.When Liz finishes her story, it's obvious to Philippa that the girl before her is deeply traumatized, unable to face up to the horrible reality of her friends' deaths. The police, meanwhile, have arrested Martin. In the interrogation room, he's aloof and arrogant.
As he begins his version of events, a terrible truth begins to emerge, a truth that will expose the full horror of an obsessive love, a love that will stop at nothing to be fulfilled...
I was expecting your average teen horror story, like I Know What You Did Last Summer or Freddy vs Jason. In a way it's disturbing, but it's got moving and powerful moments as well.
The acting was very good in this film. I enjoyed Keira Knightley playing a different role. Sure she is kind of bubbly for some of the movie, but she was also the caring & careless queen bee for the rest of the movie. It was great to see her show some emotions. Desmond Harrington was also good as Mike, Liz's obsession, the normal boy with famous parents. Embeth Davitz plays the psychologist working with the police, who is determined to find the answer to what happened to Liz. The downside to her character was she wasn't in the film as much as I would have liked to see her in it since she's such a wonderful actress but while she was in the film, she played her character very well. Daniel Brocklebank plays the school weirdo, an obsessed computer whiz who is as much in love with Liz as she's in love with Mike and he played his character well, even though at times I doubt he played the role since it seemed like the perfect role for him. As for the rest of the actors and actresses, they were probably the finest I have seen in British movies.
The script was great! Ben Court is a pretty good script writer, considering it was his first try. I enjoyed the movie a lot as I am sure you have already picked up from my review so far. I liked the script because it showed how real pain, jealousy and forbidden passion can be. It was a nice movie which showed the teenagers going from spoiled and rich to dirty and surviving on their own. It was nice to see a script that mixed both comedic and dramatic moments so perfectly. I would like to say good job Ben Court I applaud your work on this script, keep it up. The director, Nick Hamm, did a great job on directing the movie. He knew how to put the movie together. I was surprised Nick Hamm did such a great job on this film since his last films were the mildly enjoyable Talking to Angels and the awful Harmfulness of Tobacco. It's amazing that he too was able to catch the emotions that were in the movie. The movie portrays the average teens but in today's world I guess we can say the not so average teens and how life is for them in the hole. It's a very moving movie as I already mentioned above and the director really caught all the difficulties and good moments in the time they were stuck in it l.
So in conclusion, The Hole was everything I hoped it to be. It was better than I expected it to be and touched me very much. I can relate to the movie in some sense. I think that's why I really got emotional at the end of the film and cried because it's sad but it's not really that sad that someone should cry at the end. I liked the movie a lot. It was very good and thrilling. I cannot see anyone turning it off this film saying its bad. It's a film, which I think almost anyone can enjoy. It's not full of stupidity but has on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments. It has some comedy, which is always good in a film as well. To me the film is the perfect British teen drama/thriller/mystery. I give The Hole a very high rating of a 9/10.
When I popped it in I just couldn't stop watching. Not once did I excuse myself for snacks or bathroom breaks, like I always do whenever a film starts to get boring. I loved the artistic direction and the great acting. I just dig those posh British accents! The Hole is one of the finer thrillers of 2001. Just when you think you know what's going to happen next, it throws you a curb. It's about a group of private-school teenagers who secretly uncover an old, World War 2 hole and decide to explore it. They accidentally get stuck when something goes wrong and the four friends are deprived of water, food and air. Liz's escape from the hole is the backbone of the story, it keeps on showing flashbacks of the event itself. Liz casts her mind back two weeks to when she was an innocent schoolgirl with a mad crush on Mike ,the son of an American rock star and the coolest guy on the planet. Not that he'd notice her, of course, with her mousy brown hair, unsophisticated clothes and uncool image. She would do absolutely anything to get his attention. It's Martin who makes everything happen. Martin -- the school weirdo, an introverted computer whiz who is as in love with Liz as she's in love with Mike. Whatever Liz wants, Martin will get, no matter what the cost to him emotionally. And it so happens that he's arranged for Mike, Mike's best friend Geoff and Frankie, the queen of the girls' dorm, to escape the boring end-of-term geography field trip and spend three days hiding out in a secret underground bunker. He will arrange for Liz to join the party. For Liz, it's a dream come true -- three days with the coolest kids in school, handsome jock Geoff, beautiful Frankie and charming Mike, her soul mate, her Prince Charming, the man she's meant to be with.When Liz finishes her story, it's obvious to Philippa that the girl before her is deeply traumatized, unable to face up to the horrible reality of her friends' deaths. The police, meanwhile, have arrested Martin. In the interrogation room, he's aloof and arrogant.
As he begins his version of events, a terrible truth begins to emerge, a truth that will expose the full horror of an obsessive love, a love that will stop at nothing to be fulfilled...
I was expecting your average teen horror story, like I Know What You Did Last Summer or Freddy vs Jason. In a way it's disturbing, but it's got moving and powerful moments as well.
The acting was very good in this film. I enjoyed Keira Knightley playing a different role. Sure she is kind of bubbly for some of the movie, but she was also the caring & careless queen bee for the rest of the movie. It was great to see her show some emotions. Desmond Harrington was also good as Mike, Liz's obsession, the normal boy with famous parents. Embeth Davitz plays the psychologist working with the police, who is determined to find the answer to what happened to Liz. The downside to her character was she wasn't in the film as much as I would have liked to see her in it since she's such a wonderful actress but while she was in the film, she played her character very well. Daniel Brocklebank plays the school weirdo, an obsessed computer whiz who is as much in love with Liz as she's in love with Mike and he played his character well, even though at times I doubt he played the role since it seemed like the perfect role for him. As for the rest of the actors and actresses, they were probably the finest I have seen in British movies.
The script was great! Ben Court is a pretty good script writer, considering it was his first try. I enjoyed the movie a lot as I am sure you have already picked up from my review so far. I liked the script because it showed how real pain, jealousy and forbidden passion can be. It was a nice movie which showed the teenagers going from spoiled and rich to dirty and surviving on their own. It was nice to see a script that mixed both comedic and dramatic moments so perfectly. I would like to say good job Ben Court I applaud your work on this script, keep it up. The director, Nick Hamm, did a great job on directing the movie. He knew how to put the movie together. I was surprised Nick Hamm did such a great job on this film since his last films were the mildly enjoyable Talking to Angels and the awful Harmfulness of Tobacco. It's amazing that he too was able to catch the emotions that were in the movie. The movie portrays the average teens but in today's world I guess we can say the not so average teens and how life is for them in the hole. It's a very moving movie as I already mentioned above and the director really caught all the difficulties and good moments in the time they were stuck in it l.
So in conclusion, The Hole was everything I hoped it to be. It was better than I expected it to be and touched me very much. I can relate to the movie in some sense. I think that's why I really got emotional at the end of the film and cried because it's sad but it's not really that sad that someone should cry at the end. I liked the movie a lot. It was very good and thrilling. I cannot see anyone turning it off this film saying its bad. It's a film, which I think almost anyone can enjoy. It's not full of stupidity but has on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments. It has some comedy, which is always good in a film as well. To me the film is the perfect British teen drama/thriller/mystery. I give The Hole a very high rating of a 9/10.