The Dig

 3/4

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Johnny Flynn, Ken Stott, Archie Barnes

Rated PG-13 for Brief Sensuality and Partial Nudity

Maybe it's just me, but I found parts of "The Dig" fascinating.  I love ancient history, and studied it in college.  Just today, my mom sent me a link about an ancient brewery found in Egypt.  So maybe my bias is causing me to go a bit easier on this movie than it may deserve.

Edith Pretty (Mulligan) is a wealthy widower who has decided to excavate a group of large mounds on her land.  To do this, she hires Basil Brown (Fiennes), an excavator who has the skills but not the pedigree.  Together, they discover the Sutton Hoo burial site, which house two medieval cemeteries that are still being excavated to this day.  But the more they discover, the greater the outside interference they face.

"The Dig" is part buddy movie and part David versus Goliath story.  These certainly aren't diametrically opposed genres, and the problems with the film have nothing to do with how director Simon Stone elects to wed them.  Rather, it's that a crucial component from any movie centered on a relationship must have is missing.

Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan are two highly talented actors, and they don't disappoint.  Mulligan takes the lead, portraying Edith as a woman of great personal strength and intelligence but physical weakness.  Fiennes turns in a rather surprising performance as a man so reserved that he can't fight for the recognition he deserves without encouragement from others.  The problem is that despite their best efforts, these two don't click.  I never felt any sort of connection between them.  I understood how they felt about each other, but I didn't feel it.  And since that is the heart and soul of the movie, it makes parts of the film a bit tedious.

Once the film opens up, the film takes off.  Mulligan and Fiennes have greater success interacting with other characters, such as the pompous professional archaeologist Charles Phillips (Stott) or Edith's son Robert (Barnes).  One curious inclusion is a romance between Peggy Piggott (James), one of the archaeologists, and Edith's cousin Rory Lomax (Flynn).  The two actors are photogenic and have some chemistry, but I was wondering what their scenes added to the film.

Director Simon Stone opts for an understated tone to tell this story, and it's the wrong decision.  It's an exciting thing to uncover history lost to time, but Stone fails to covey this.  Strangely, he doesn't seem to try.  Maybe he was trying to avoid manipulation but there is always room for good showmanship in cinema.  What the film needs more than anything is a sense of dramatic momentum.  A film is a story, not just a series of interconnected scenes.  "The Dig" doesn't have a strong narrative thrust to carry us from beginning to end.

I realize that my comments on this movie were mostly negative.  Still, on the whole, I enjoyed myself.  I was entertained and appreciated the strong acting.  There were some fascinating elements to be found here.  Watching a small British town prepare for war (the film is set in 1938-39) is interesting, and the technical aspects of an archaeological dig are compelling.  There are also some moments of high tension that come from unexpected (but not contrived) places.  "The Dig" isn't for everyone, but those who give it a try will find some things to appreciate.

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