Running time: 102 minutes
Starring: Thora Birch, Desmond Harrington, Keira Knightley, Laurence Fox, Daniel Brocklebank, Embeth Davidtz
Rating 7 out of 10
I don't believe it - a British film made largely with homegrown talent which stands an extremely good chance of making its money back, plus loose change. Even more satisfying, The Hole is extremely well photographed and directed, and puts an intelligent new spin on the conventional teens in peril
set-up. Will wonders never cease?
Teenager Liz (Thora Birch) collapses, battered and bloody, in the corridor of her exclusive English boarding school after a terrifying two week ordeal, trapped with almost no food or water in a disused underground bunker.
The police arrive within minutes and hurriedly begin the difficult forensic examination of the subterranean tomb and surrounding woodland, where Liz's three friends - Mike (Desmond Harrington), Geoff (Laurence Fox) and Frankie (Keira Knightley) - lost their lives.
Psychologist Dr Philippa Horwood (Embeth Davidtz) is called in to interview Liz, and to determine the chain of events leading to the tragedy. Philippa forms an immediate bond with the clearly traumatized girl, and gentle coaxes the truth out of Liz: how introverted computer geek Martin (Daniel Brocklebank) locked them in the bunker so they could escape a boring end-of-term geography field trip; and how he never returned, leaving them to die in that godforsaken hole.
The police arrest Martin on holiday with his parents in the Far East, and seek a confession. However, he has a far different version of events to relay to Dr Horwood.
He claims Liz was the mastermind behind the sortie to the underground bunker; that she used the trip to get close to school hunk Mike; that she is playing them all for fools. Philippa is deeply sceptical of Martin's versions of events, yet there is no physical evidence to fully corroborate either his or Liz's testimony.
Calling upon her years of experience, Dr Horwood scours for the truth, exposing an obsessive love of terrifying proportions which threatens to engulf them all.
The Hole is a stylish psychological thriller which cleverly pulls the wool over our eyes, shifting allegiances back and forth between Liz and Martin as they spin their own versions of the "truth". A big final reel pay off guarantees plenty to talk about when the lights go up.
Birch is the lynchpin and she is brilliantly understated as the sole survivor of the hole, bringing a tantalizing ambiguity to her scenes. The young actress is all too aware how to manipulate the camera, doing just enough to create doubt in our mind. The duality of her character - saint in her own version of events, devil incarnate as far as Martin is concerned - establishes a potent dramatic tension.
Teenager Liz (Thora Birch) collapses, battered and bloody, in the corridor of her exclusive English boarding school after a terrifying two week ordeal, trapped with almost no food or water in a disused underground bunker.
The police arrive within minutes and hurriedly begin the difficult forensic examination of the subterranean tomb and surrounding woodland, where Liz's three friends - Mike (Desmond Harrington), Geoff (Laurence Fox) and Frankie (Keira Knightley) - lost their lives.
Psychologist Dr Philippa Horwood (Embeth Davidtz) is called in to interview Liz, and to determine the chain of events leading to the tragedy. Philippa forms an immediate bond with the clearly traumatized girl, and gentle coaxes the truth out of Liz: how introverted computer geek Martin (Daniel Brocklebank) locked them in the bunker so they could escape a boring end-of-term geography field trip; and how he never returned, leaving them to die in that godforsaken hole.
The police arrest Martin on holiday with his parents in the Far East, and seek a confession. However, he has a far different version of events to relay to Dr Horwood.
He claims Liz was the mastermind behind the sortie to the underground bunker; that she used the trip to get close to school hunk Mike; that she is playing them all for fools. Philippa is deeply sceptical of Martin's versions of events, yet there is no physical evidence to fully corroborate either his or Liz's testimony.
Calling upon her years of experience, Dr Horwood scours for the truth, exposing an obsessive love of terrifying proportions which threatens to engulf them all.
The Hole is a stylish psychological thriller which cleverly pulls the wool over our eyes, shifting allegiances back and forth between Liz and Martin as they spin their own versions of the "truth". A big final reel pay off guarantees plenty to talk about when the lights go up.
Birch is the lynchpin and she is brilliantly understated as the sole survivor of the hole, bringing a tantalizing ambiguity to her scenes. The young actress is all too aware how to manipulate the camera, doing just enough to create doubt in our mind. The duality of her character - saint in her own version of events, devil incarnate as far as Martin is concerned - establishes a potent dramatic tension.
