Holes and Holes

The movie is excellent, with a true feeling of how hard life is, and how tragic, and how (sometimes) rewarding. The cast is great - well, the whole thing was done with craft and a good deal of inspiration.

The book is quite good - I read a few days after seeing the movie, in comparison to which it suffers. There are several interactions in the text which aren't paced to make sense or have impact - on screen they were electric. The screenplay is by the author, so I assume that he just hadn't gotten across his concept originally (though perhaps it's just a fine reworking). This would make a wonderful reading exercise (I'm thinking in particular about the negotiation over the original discovery).

There were however several points where the book's refusal of sentimentality were lost in translation, esp. in the ending, which drags out a bit in the movie, and a spot or two where the movie doesn't bother making sense.

Anyway, I recommend ignoring the for-kids categorization and renting the movie.