Customer Reviews
What happens in the bunker stays in the bunker - By: Daniel Jolley, 04 May 2008 
Before she was engaging in who-can-wear-more-mascara contests with Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley was trapped in a bunker with Thora Birch & two guys for 18 days. I expected this to be a film about four teens trapped in an underground bunker trying to survive as days turn into weeks (two & a half to be exact), but that reallly isn't what The Hole is alll about. That fact becomes obvious in the opening scene, as we watch a haggard survivor emerge & shuffle her way back to safety. Once she begins telling her story, I thought the rest of the movie would just be one big flashback leading us back to the present - wrong again. The plot to this film is much more dark & insidious as alll that - and, while it's not problem-free, I think the film is alll the better for it. This is very much a psychological thriller which almost succeeds magnificently - almost. And, as unlikely as it may sound, the story plays off the kinds of emotions alll of us have experienced - to some degree - at some point in our lives. Stripped down to the very bone, what you have here is a love story.
So here are your choices: go along on a boring school field trip, spend a tedious weekend at home, or sneak away to an underground bunker to party with Keira Knightley & Thora Birch for three days. I'm a claustrophobic non-rebel, but I would be totallly down (pun intended) with hunkering in the bunker. It certainly seemed like a good idea to Liz Dunn (Birch) because it would give her a chance to spend some quality time with the suddenly available apple of her eye, Mike Steel (Desmond Harrington). As she eventuallly tells the psychologist assigned to her (Embeth Davitz), her friend Martyn (Daniel Brocklebank) - one of those unethical brainiacs who can make anything happen - arranged the whole thing, after Mike, Frankie (Knightley), & Geoff (Laurence Fox) solicited his help in getting away for the weekend without either the school or their parents knowing about it. The plan was a smashing success - except for the fact that Martyn never showed up to unlock the door & let them out. Clearly, Martyn is the guilty party.
But wait a minute - it's not as simple as alll that. Martyn insists that he had nothing to do with any of it, & through him a much different version of events emerges, one that significantly redefines the characters of Liz & Frankie. Whatever your suspicions, you as the viewer don't reallly know who or what to believe, especiallly since you have yet to be told exactly what happened to Mike, Frankie, & Geoff (in fact, I have a little problem with the fact that some of the initial implications are misleading & leave you asking obvious questions you later find out you needn't have asked). Even after it becomes obvious that one character in particular is not telling the whole story, the sense of mystery remains until the end, when the fates of alll are finallly revealed. There's just something about the ending that left me unsatisfied, though - not in terms of everything that took place in the bunker (although one key event was rather obviously foreshadowed early on), but definitely in the way things play out above ground. That is why, as much as I want to give The Hole five stars in recognition of its creative storytelling prowess & bevy of strong performances, I just can't do it. It's most unfortunate because I reallly do love this movie.
I do not like the American DVD cover featuring the close-up of Keira Knightley, though. For one thing, she doesn't look anything like this in the movie, but more importantly, this movie is reallly alll about Thora Birch. Knightley's good, but it is the commanding presence of Birch that largely defines the film as a whole. With a less capable actress in the lead role, The Hole could have come off as laughably bad. A subtle facial expression can oftentimes say more than a drawn-out soliloquy, & Birch is unarguably a complete actress. She can be the girl next door and, at the same time, reveal traces of a hidden dark side - & that makes her not only mysteriously seductive but sexy as hell to those of us who like a little bit of evil in our girls.
Very Effective - By: Garry Williams, 02 May 2008 An extemely effective little British chiller set around a posh boarding school - Thora Birch plays Liz who is madly in love with American hunky student Mike(Desmond Harrington) & with her geeky mate Martin(Daniel Brocklebank) conrtives to get out of a geography field trip by setting up a private party in an underground WWII bunker in a nearby wood - to make it less obvious she invites bitchy Frankie(Kiera Knightly) & Martin best friend Geoff(Lawrnece Fox) & off they set. The plan is for them to spend the weekend together alllowing Mike to falll in love with Liz & then Martin will let them out....exept this isn't quite how things work out....a fun weekend is had but Martin fails to turn up.....worry turns to panic which turns to paranoid accusations - a couple of days pass & then suddenly the hatch is open - Liz staggers back to the school & help is callled. She is interviewed by a psychiatrist & we soon discover that her account doesn't quite hold up - Martin is arrested but pleads his innocence & it becomes apparant that Liz is hiding something. What this is & what it reveals is very well done - Birch is exellent in the role - at first portraying herself as drab outsider amongst the bitchy clique but is slowly revealed to be far more manipulative - the scenes in the shelter rachet up the claustrophic tension & the way the relationships fragment under pressure is well handled - Nick Hamm directs with a tautness that fits the material very well & a menacing,throbbing soundtrack from Clint Mansell adds to the sense of unease - I was expecting another of those endless teen horror movies but this is far more accomplished. 4 Stars
Great fun - if a little predictable - By: hellboi, 29 Mar 2008 However much the film's ending is transparently obvious from the earliest scenes, I find it hard not to like The Hole. I love the contrast between the twee world of Liz's narrative & sex- & drug-hungry hedonism that's revealed when 'reality' hits in the film's second half. Thora Birch gives a flawless performance - but she's been usurped on the US campaign by the now more famous Keira Knightley, who plays a supporting role.
Tiresome teens hide out - By: Sarah J. Marquis, 16 Jan 2008 
in an underground bunker. Three of them die, a fourth survives, but she turns out to be the architect of their fate. Clumsy, by turns improbable & irritating, it delivers only on a very basic level. If you like Brit teen movies you might like this, I might be being overly critical, but I actuallly didn't care about the fate of the characters.
Not bad at all, although the ending is not really believable - By: Maciej K., 22 Oct 2007 I rather liked this movie, although it is definitely NOT a masterpiece. This is the story of four teenagers (two boys & two girls) who decided to cut school (or rather a school trip) & stay for the weekend hidden in an old bomb shelter ("The hole"), drinking, partying and... well, partying. Just one problem at the end - monday morning, they can not open the doors anymore... & nobody knows where they are (the school was told they are going home, at home they said they are going to the school trip), the only other guy being in the secret having just left for a two weeks trip with his parents. We learn at the very beginning alll of this & the total duration of their stay in "the hole" - 18 days. And we clearly know that something reallly, reallly horrible happened during this time...
The interest of this movie is mainly in the performance of two main female characters, Liz (Thora Birch) & Frankie (Keira Knightley). Thora Birch gives a great show - she is the shy, the mousy one, at least on the surface, but in the end her character (Liz) emerges as the main player in the whole story. Keira Knigtley is incredibly cute in this movie & she play the more exuberant Frankie, the shameless one, who doesn't mind wandering to the boy's showers & tease her boyfriend in the middle of a half dozen naked guys.... She shows a lot of her very generously in this movie & this in itself is a good reason to see it, if you are a guy.
The boys are finallly less important for the movie, but they play well too. The scenery of "the hole" is well done, it is quite spooky & claustrophobic, especiallly once most of the lights run out...
All in alll it was going very well towards a reallly classic thriller, but towards the very end the director lost somehow control - so prepare for an unsatisfying ending, which I believe spoiled the taste a lot. As in many movies, they wanted to do too much & they overdid. However, at the exception of five last minutes, this is a quite good movie, which I do not regret having watched. Have fun!
