Simply A Masterpiece

Blistering performances.

The acting in this movie is really good.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

There is nothing special in this movie, but it is not a bad movie. It keeps you with the wish of seeing more and I was not bored. But I was not surprised. I think the direction failed. It could have made this film much more special. All the elements are there. The actors are OK. But something is missing. Anyway, not all films can be all 10/10. So, this film for me deserves to be seen, because after all is not so predictable, and as said is not, or was not for me, boring, and what I think can be strategically good is that this film can be watched by lot of different people with different tastes and sensibilities. Not, probably, by very sensible persons, but being not very very full of suspense and thrills and disgusting things (well, at least not so much), it has a relatively wide public to satisfy.

A teenager with usual hen issues, a boy of every girl's dream, a girl with fiber tablet diet and her boyfriend plan to escape a field-trip by double crossing the parents and school authorities by staking out in an unused war bunker.When the door doesn't budge after three days, they are stuck in "the hole".Narrated by one of the four in a psychological session, the film juggles between reality and lies, at one point the movie goes "usual suspects" on you but that is only the half way and there are other loops to untied.Thora Birch gives a strong performance. It's a pity that she didn't make a big career given her potential. Others have given a decent act but the plot loses its charm towards the end and hence plays coy on the whole movie.One time watch.

Attractive (but possibly cast as plain) British private school student Thora Birch (as Elizabeth "Liz" Dunn) wanders into the halls looking bloody awful. She lets out an ear-piercing scream. As it turns out, Ms. Birch and three other teenagers have been missing. Reporters calmly tell us they've been found; their manner is more of a cheat than a relief, as it turns out. In flashback, we learn Birch wants to hook up with handsome jock Desmond Harrington (as Michael "Mike" Steel). She arranges to be locked up with him in a bomb shelter near their school, thinking the close quarters will lead to copulation...Birch's childhood friend, nerdy-acting Daniel Brocklebank (as Martyn Taylor), plays a key role. Joining Birch and her prospective mate in the bomb shelter are sexy blond on blonde friends Laurence Fox (as Geoffrey "Geoff" Bingham) and Keira Knightley (as Frances "Frankie" Smith). Both have showy nude scenes; she flashes her teenage top and he has a long shower scene with the guys. Desperately needed psychological help is provided by Embeth Davidtz (as Philippa Horwood). What happened in "The Hole" is a point-of-view mystery, with Birch and Brocklebank more satisfying than the solution.***** The Hole (4/20/01) Nick Hamm ~Thora Birch, Desmond Harrington, Daniel Brocklebank, Laurence Fox

Rather unpleasant but gripping story of four teen-aged school kids trapped in an old underground bunker in the kind of "densely wooded area" where all dead bodies are found.The kids have been trying to escape a field trip to Wales and entered the bunker with plenty of booze, planning a three-day debauch. Parties, however, can't last forever, as I've had opportunities to discover, and after the first night they're hung over and, to add to their misery, the iron door at the top of the bunker slams shut and is locked.Three days later, Thora Birch, the lone survivor, stumbles into the arms of the authorities, in shock, her clothing ripped. The three bodies are removed from the vault and Birch tells her sad tale to the shrink, Embeth Davidtz. The story of what happened emerges in several flashbacks as Birch gradually loosens up. I guess I won't reveal the details, due to legal confidentiality.The movie depends largely on Thora Birch and she's quite good as the sullen but conniving school outcast, cum murderess. She plain, but not too plain -- just plain enough to pass for an outcast, and her grooming is semi-Goth. The two horny boys are dispensable. Kiera Knightley is a stunning and flirtatious fox who oozes oestrus. Next to her, anybody would look plain. Both boys throw themselves on her and almost get his jeans off but not quite, worse luck. Too bad, what happens to her.Neither of the young girls is quite as attractive -- not JUST sexy -- as Embeth Davidtz, the earnest and puzzled shrink who is trying to make sense out of this jigsaw puzzle tale. Her Brit accent sounds flawless to my alien ears. Davidtz was born in Indiana but was moved at an early age to South Africa and I suppose that helped. By the end, the cunning Birch has turned suspicion towards Davidtz.If there's a problem with the movie it's that the milieu -- that awful and decrepit underground bunker -- is so dismal. What a depressing place to spend a three-day holiday. And the decor is a catastrophe. The toilets don't work and one of them winds up filled with maggots.I watched it with curiosity and some interest but I wouldn't go through it again.