OxfordPress.com

The movie lacks the book's charm -- and the blame can't be dumped on Hollywood. Sachar wrote the screenplay himself.

"Holes" begins like a kiddie "Cool Hand Luke," with an "O Brother, Where Art Thou" soundtrack. A bunch of miscreant kids, with colorful nicknames like Armpit and Squid, labor all day in the hot sun at a juvenile detention camp with the deceptively placid name of Camp Green Lake. They dig holes -- lots and lots of holes -- in the crater of a dried-up Texas lake. The Warden (Sigourney Weaver), a kind of Cruella De Vil in a Stetson and cowboy boots, claims it's character-building, a sentiment echoed by her second-in-command, Mr. Sir (Jon Voight, with a late-Elvis paunch): "Take a bad boy, make him dig holes all day, and it turns him into a good boy."

But we all know she's looking for buried treasure. She's that kind of person.

Our adolescent hero, the palindrome-ically named Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf), lands at Camp Green Lake after a pair of stolen sneakers literally land on him. He's innocent, but his father (Henry Winkler) sees his unjust punishment as part of the family curse.

As in the book, the picture juggles several era-switching stories at once. Along with Stanley's saga, there's a 19th century tale of a schoolmarm-turned-bandit (Patricia Arquette) that's part Wild West yarn, part plea for racial tolerance, and the best part of the movie by far. The film also skips back to

18th century Latvia where we learn how Stanley's great-great-grandfather forgot to keep his promise to a gypsy fortuneteller (Eartha Kitt) who then zapped him with the family curse.

The time frame isn't the only thing that jumps around. Director Andrew Davis ("The Fugitive") never settles on a tone. The book has tonal shifts, too, but they're smartly blended. (Sachar employs some of the golly-gosh fairy-tale deadpan used by William Goldman in "The Princess Bride.")

But the picture is all over the place -- sometimes a fairly stupid broad comedy, sometimes a rather threatening child-cruelty flick, sometimes tinged with magic realism.

"Holes" is at its best when it knits together the book's themes of family and fate. Ironically, that kind of intertwined storytelling may make the film too difficult for younger kids. So might some of the book's more adventurous segments, featuring Stanley and a mystic homeless moppet named Zero (Khleo Thomas) who runs afoul of the Warden's wrath.

Weaver, who did the picture because her daughter loves the book, has a good time without exerting too much effort.

Voight is in overripe "Anaconda" mode, while Tim Blake Nelson is properly ferret-y as the camp's doctor. Winkler is surprisingly effective as Stanley's inventor-dad, who's trying to eliminate foot odor. Best of all is Arquette, who brings both swashbuckling style and romantic yearning to her interracial love story. She falls for Sam ("The West Wing's" Dulé Hill, also good), an African-American onion-seller who wins her heart with his goodness and charm.

"I can fix that," he says, whether facing a broken door or Arquette's longing-to-be-kissed lips.

Unfortunately Sam can't fix "Holes." But if your child's a longtime fan of the book, get in the ticket line. And bring a book and a teeny flashlight for yourself.