"JOHN AND THE HOLE" // SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
Lead by four strong acting performances, JOHN AND THE HOLE is a perplexing kind of film. It's a film that builds and starts with a simmering uncomfortableness, one that seems to be warning you of things to come. Once those things do come though, the film sinks into a strange icy nothing, a stance that seems noncommittal to making a statement about anything.
Charlie Shotwell plays John, a 13-year-old quiet kid who often asks weird but non-threatening questions to his parents, leaving them to simply write him off as a bit of an odd kid. He seemingly has only one friend and is a child born of wealth. His parents (Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Ehle) are supporting if somewhat icy parents, calling him "buddy" and saying things like, "If I'm home early enough, maybe we can toss around that ball," a phrasing that seems so out of an old TV show that you believe he probably pulled some parenting phrasing from old TV shows. He mops around, playing video games with a friend online, practices tennis and generally seems disinterested in general conversation other than his video game buddy.
One day, out of nowhere really, he mixes something in the lemonade he gives their gardener who abruptly passes out. Seemingly satisfied that it worked, he then turns his attention to his parents and older sister. He slips something into their food & drink and that night all three pass out so hard John is able to drag them outside without them waking out. He drags them to a hole, one that was left behind when a construction crew abandoned making an underground shelter. No reason is given for John's actions, nor does he seem to hate his family. Which makes the action even scarier. Is this a psychopath in the making? What will happen to the family after they suddenly wake up, look around and ask, "Where are we? Where's John?!"
The answer is... not much. JOHN AND THE HOLE builds at an incredibly slow pace and once the "hole" of the title comes into play, you might expect a dark turn of John's intentions or emotions. But we don't get any of that. Instead, we simply get John playing house and the family stuck in a hole. The emptiness of the latter half of the film simply drags on and what we're left to cling onto is the fine performances by the actors. As John, Charlie Shotwell displays an unsettling coldness to the world around him and his assured performance boldly sets what could be his breakout role. He doesn't let you in, because the film dictates that he can't, but you feel that he's holding something back, maybe a lot, from you and from those around him. As the family, Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Ehle and Taissa Farmiga are all great. Once they are trapped in the bunker, the acting shines, even if the film falters. The filmmakers are asking a lot of questions here and many of them are very intriguing (such as "What does John think he can do with any of these luxuries once his family is gone?"). But they also aren't concerned with answering them and though I'm a fan of not tying things up neatly by the end, almost nothing is even addressed let alone neatly tied up. It's a movie about coldness that sadly leaves you cold.
GRADE: C-
WRITTEN BY Nicolás Giacobone DIRECTED BY Pascual Sisto STARRING Charlie Shotwell, Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Ehle, Taissa Farmiga FEATURED AS PART OF THE 2021 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. FOR MORE INFO: JOHN AND THE HOLE