Review of The Dig (2021) by Ahmedaiman1999 — 29 Mar 2021

For a movie with so many reviews teetering between either disparaging its direction as a Malick-wannabe or lauding it as having something eloquently poetic about it reminiscent of Terrence Malick, I was astonished to find The Dig far from being nearly as divisive as it should be. There's broad consensus that it's a well-acted and well-shot film despite its shortcomings. With only Days of Heaven under my belt (along with quite a few video essays about Malick's style), the only two rights I have here are to agree that: the comparison made here is valid; and the movie is decent at best. With low-angle, wide lens shots, wind-carried camera coming towards and away from the characters, and detaching the dialogue from the on-screen events that let us hover over the characters, it may well be argued that the technical approach rendered the film said poetic quality and a dream-like feel that implicitly beseech the viewer to give in to the meditative atmosphere that prevails the scene. Alas, this approach seems to be at odds with the most salient plotline in the story, or at least the one it was going for at first: the excavation of Sutton Hoo. For the movie neither probes into the remarkable discovery that forms the supposedly overarching thematic plotline nor does it completely ignore it. The story set it up in a fairly compelling way, only to ditch it quite early for the dramatic subplots surrounding the two lead characters, leaving the historic achievement merely skimmed over.

To be fair, Basil Brown and Edith Pretty are multi-layered characters that reveal themselves more and more as the story proceeds, and I could tell that from the get-go, only looking at Fiennes and Mulligan's sorrow-laden countenances that seem to hide (and actually are hiding) secrets underneath the story would later unravel. Still, the movie wasn't keen on diving into the characters' profiles, leaving much to be desired. Then, out of nowhere, the story shift its focus to another subplot concerning Lily James's Peggy Piggott. It's quite possibly the most interesting segment in the story, and Lily James really gave one of her most riveting performances to date. Be that as it may, this jarring shift from one storyline to another is rather distracting, aggravating the movie's lack of consistency even further, and the fact Mrs. Pretty's storyline was sidetracked for no reason makes it all the worse. Thankfully, and as the story wraps up, the movie finally acquired a discernible identity. The character arcs were mostly tied up gracefully and neatly, the technical prowess at its most thriving, and the film regained its contemplative tone with a dash of weltschmerz tossed in for effective measure. Despite its blatant inextricably linked issues, The Dig is a stunning-looking, great film with even greater performances buried inside a rather muddled one.