No, Not That Orifice

Thora Birch and Keira Knightley take their dates to an old bomb shelter. Horrific tragedy results in 2001's The Hole. It's a good premise and both Birch and Knightley are good in it but by the second half of the film the story sinks beneath the weight of lousy direction and weak writing.

Birch plays Liz, a student at a prominent British boarding school. Birch puts on an English accent and keeps it about 75% of the time. Liz is in love with an American student named Mike (Desmond Harrington). She and her simp friend, Martin (Daniel Brocklebank), seize the opportunity when Mike temporarily breaks up with his girlfriend to get Mike, Liz, Frankie (Knightley), and Geoff (Laurence Fox) locked up in the old shelter.

Much of the story is told in flashback as a traumatised Liz speaks of the experience to a police therapist (Embeth Davidtz). Blame for the fact that the kids were locked in the shelter is put on Martin.

The cinematography makes the film look cheap and made for television. It's especially ludicrous when Frankie complains about how terrible the absolute darkness is and meanwhile the place is lit like a department store.

Even if they didn't want to go the route of realism, there are better ways to suggest absolute darkness without showing it. A more general, hazy light maybe or just one or two flashlight beams.

Of course, there's more to the story than Liz is letting on and the truth turns out to be a real tragedy. Unfortunately, someone working on the film decided Liz needed to do an exposition dump in the climax like a Bond villain, dashing any hope at an effectively tragic tale. Oh, well.