Young Stanley Yelnats, Shia LaBoeuf, gets nabbed for having a stolen pair of shoes in his possession, admittedly they\'re a famous pair of shoes but still 18 months in a detention camp at Green Lake seems a bit rich. But Stanley comes from a family of losers as we\'ll find out in the course of the film. At Green Lake Stanley discovers a weird, desolate world ruled by The Warden, Sigourney Weaver, who has her charges digging holes 5 foot long and 5 foot deep. The landscape is dotted with them. Her enforcer Mr. Sir, John Voight, is a very strange creature. But it\'s Stanley\'s friendship with Zero, Khleo Thomas that\' s the heart of the story.There are back stories about Stanley\'s great great grandfather who had a curse put on him by a seer, Eartha Kitt, and an interracial love story between schoolteacher, Patricia Arquette, and an onion farmer, Dule Hill. And really it\'s all a bit much.
It\'s intriguing but confusing, possibly much more rewarding read as a novel than condensed into a movie. However the performances, particularly by the younger crowd, are convincing - Shia LaBoeuf is very good. Director Andrew Davis actually succeeds in making this layered story fairly intelligible.
