The Hole (2001 film)

The Hole
Directed by	Nick Hamm
Written by	Ben Court Caroline Ip
Produced by	Jeremy Bolt Lisa Bryer Pippa Cross
Starring	Thora Birch Desmond Harrington Keira Knightley Daniel Brocklebank Laurence Fox
Distributed by	Pathé (UK), Buena Vista (USA direct-to-video)
Release date	20 April 2001 (UK)
Running time	102 min
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£4,158,370

The Hole is a 2001 psychological thriller film directed by Nick Hamm, based on the novel After the Hole by Guy Burt.

The film starred Thora Birch, whose headlining credit and highly-publicized seven-figure salary was attributed to her appearance in American Beauty. It also featured Keira Knightley, in her first significant role in a feature film and British supermodel James Rousseau in a deleted scene at the end designed to set up a possible sequel.

The film premiered in the United Kingdom in April 2001. Dimension Films, which in October 2001 acquired the rights to distribute the film theatrically in the United States, never did so; it was instead released direct-to-video nearly two years later, by Dimension's then-fellow Disney subsidiary Buena Vista Distribution. The film was shot largely in and around Downside School, in Somerset, UK.

Plot

The film opens with the appearance of a dishevelled Liz (Birch), one of four English private school pupils, also including Mike (Desmond Harrington), Geoff (Laurence Fox), and Frankie (Keira Knightley), who have been missing for 18 days. Liz is interviewed by a psychiatrist (Embeth Davidtz) and describes the events of the four students in an abandoned, underground shelter during their school break.

Liz describes to the psychiatrist, who is filming the interview, how she told Martyn (Daniel Brocklebank) about her unrequited love for Mike and Martyn promised to help, as they were best friends. Martyn takes Mike, Geoff, Liz and Frankie to an obviously disused air-raid shelter, where they have decided to stay in order to avoid a school trip to Wales. The four students climb into the shelter, Mike with reluctance, and as Martyn shuts the door we see him lock it. After three days they realize they are trapped and begin to turn on each other. They eventually realize that Martyn has hidden microphones in the shelter. Voice-acting, Frankie pretends to be sick while Mike and Liz pretend to hate each other because Liz 'realises' that this is what Martyn wants - he has been in love with Liz "since we were eleven". The plan apparently works as one morning they wake up and the hatch is open. They all climb out and Liz describes how Mike hugged her, thanking her for saving them.

However, soon after Liz finishes her story, the psychiatrist is seen on the phone telling someone that she does not believe Liz's story, while Liz waves happily to her from the window behind her.

Martyn has been taken into custody for questioning in regards to Liz's story and the psychiatrist brings Liz back to her home. Martyn begins telling the police a completely different story - "You do know Liz hates me?!". He says that she and Frankie are best friends; "so close that they are almost the same person." It was Liz and Frankie that orchestrated the whole thing so that Liz could get close to Mike, and Frankie could spend time with Geoff. The police are forced to release Martyn, despite believing he is guilty, because they can find no evidence to tie him to the scene. We see Liz at home, and she is experiencing flashbacks of the true events in the hole. Martyn comes to see her, angry and distraught that she has framed him. She runs from him through the garden and approaches a weir. Martyn cries and Liz hysterically says that she knew they would let him go because they couldn't prove anything, she strokes his neck, but we see nothing of what happens next.

Liz meets again with the psychiatrist, and convinces her to take her back to the hole because she says she can't remember what happened, however hard she tries. Once they are both down the hatch, the reality comes out. Liz reveals that "see, the door wasn't locked from the outside". Liz in fact had the key to the door and locked it herself as a last-minute change to an adolescent plan to win Mike's affection; Liz's spontaneous response to the realization that both Geoff and Mike are attracted to Frankie. Her obsession with him led her to believe that, with time, she could win Mike over, and locking the door bought her time. They have a good time at first, drinking and taking drugs, until after an argument Mike tries to leave and they realise they cannot get the door open. They all turn on Liz and begin yelling at her for 'slamming the door too hard' as she closed it, being the last one in. Mike and Liz begin some form of relationship and are interrupted from kissing at one point by Geoff, shouting that Frankie is sick. Liz sits by her as she continually vomits and talks about how she will "probably sleep with Mike tonight". Liz gets up in the night and can't find Frankie, until she walks into the bathroom and screams at the sight of her on the floor with blood round her face, dead from side effects of her bulimia. They move Frankie's body to another part of the shelter. The remaining three gradually run out of food and water, and Liz tries to tell Mike that she has the key and has done all along, when it is revealed that Geoff is hoarding Coke in his bag, Mike kills Geoff in an uncontrollable outburst of violence by smashing his head against the concrete floor. Reduced to two, Mike professes his love for Liz, after she suggests a suicide pact, saying he needs her. This prompts Liz to climb the ladder towards the shelter's entrance and unlock the door. Perched on a landing high above the shelter's floor, she's forced to tell Mike she's had the key all along. Mike is overwhelmed by the events of the past few days and angrily rushes up the ladder to her, screaming and swinging as he tries to climb as fast as possible. The ladder breaks and he falls to his death, impaled by the broken metal, and Liz runs - the opening scene of the film. The psychiatrist tells Liz she is going to have to repeat everything again to the police and Liz replies that of course she will not. The psychiatrist argues that she is responsible but Liz doesn't accept this - "Why should I be punished for something that went wrong?". The psychiatrist points out that Martyn will corroborate everything Liz has just told her to which Liz replies, with a smile, "But it's too late."

The police then enter the hole, and Liz starts to shout "Thank God, thank God! I thought she was going to hurt me!" The psychiatrist learns from the police that Martyn's body had been found near a weir, with the key to the shelter on his person. They believe it to be a suicide - further proof to them of his guilt. The confrontation between Martyn and Liz earlier ended with a struggle that resulted in Martyn's drowning. The film ends as Martyn's body is taken out from the weir, and Liz being comforted by a police officer and smiling towards the troubled psychiatrist and the corpse of the boy she killed.

Cast

• Thora Birch - Elizabeth 'Liz' Dunn
• Keira Knightley - Frances 'Frankie' Almond Smith
• Desmond Harrington - Michael 'Mike' Steel
• Laurence Fox - Geoffrey 'Geoff' Bingham
• Daniel Brocklebank - Martyn Taylor
• Embeth Davidtz - Dr. Philippa Horwood
• Steven Waddington - DCS Tom Howard
• Kelly Hunter - DI Chapman
• Anastasia Hille - Forensic Pathologist Gillian
• Austin Woodin - Guy who breaks up the fight on the playing fields.

Production

Director Nick Hamm calls the film a "triangle of love" and "triangle of obsession"; he believes the "sole reason for the film" can be summed up in a single line spoken by Liz: "Have you ever loved anyone so much you didn't care what happened to yourself?"

External links

• The Hole at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Hole at IMDb