#TheDig #HollywoodEnglishFilmMovieReview #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas

 

Hollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Not as deep as the hole in the ground

Film: The Dig

#Netflix

 

 

Cast: Arsher Ali, Ben Chaplin, Carey Mulligan, Chris Wilson, Eileen Davies, Joe Hurst, Johnny Flynn, Ken Stott, Lily James, Monica Dolan, Ralph Fiennes

Director: Simon Stone

Rating: * * ½

Runtime: 112 mins

Based on a true story, this retelling of the discovery of an Anglo-Saxon burial boat with a a cache of rare artifacts in an archaeological dig in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, in 1939, is emotionally potent but lacks the fluid grace that could have rendered it entertaining.

 

A wealthy, sickly widow Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) with a young impressionable son, hires a gifted amateur archaeologist/Excavator Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes)  to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. The historic discovery they unearth were revolutionary not only because of their period rarity but also because they redefined how history looked upon the "dark ages".  The sophistication of the artefacts showed historians that Anglo-Saxon culture was actually far more developed than had been presumed. The discovery as shown in this narrative acts as a dramatic cul-de-sac between Britain’s rich past and World War II imperiled uncertain future‎.

 

 

To lend some drama to the rather boring proceedings screenwriter Moira Buffini embellishes the narrative with some action. Fighter planes flying in formation over the dig site, a near-death experience, a crash landing, an illicit romance each of which is in turn countered by dedicated British reticence. Carey Mulligan’s Edith Pretty, Ralph Fiennes’ Basil Brown, Lily James' archaeologist Peggy Preston caught in a triangular love story with Ben Chaplain as her gay husband and Johnny Flynn as amateur photographer Stuart Piggott, and the rest of the ensemble cast are competent enough but the overall engagement still leaves a lot to be desired. 

 

The tempo and pacing here are rather studied and given to silences. The lush cinematography and the accurate period design fail to provide the lift to an enterprise rendered listless by understatement.

Johnsont307@gmail.com