The Dig movie review

MOVIE TITLE: The Dig

Releases on January 29, 2021 on NETFLIX

(Thanks, Netflix, for sending me the screener to preview ahead of the film’s release!)

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 1 hour 52 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: B

IN A NUTSHELL:

Based on a true story, this drama tells the historical account of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge in Suffolk, England. They actually found two medieval cemeteries on the site that date from the 6th to 7th centuries on a homeowner’s private property. They found an undisturbed ship buried with a bunch of Anglo-Saxon artifacts. For an archaeologist, that had to have been extremely exciting. This, however, ain’t no Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

The film is directed by Simon Stone and based on a novel by John Preston. It fills in some reimagined holes in the historic excavation. Just like the ship that remained hidden for centuries, the insightful film is a study of characters who are also overlooked by others around them. It’s a slow, steady exploration of people and things that disappear in time.

If you’d like to learn more about the actual dig, check out the novel by John Preston called:

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TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Kids will be bored and wish for more action. So will some adults.
You see a naked woman in a bathtub but the camera angle protects her modesty.
Someone gets into a perilous situation

THEMES:

Greed
Love
History
Determination
Being heard and appreciated by others
Respect for things and people

THINGS I LIKED:

The movie features some of my favorite actors: Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan, and Lily James. Speaking of Ralph Fiennes, he actually helped to establish a real archaeological field school in England with his brother called The Poulton Project. It’s a multi-period site that has special significance because of a medieval cemetery that students excavate every spring and summer! Very cool.
If you want to see two completely different performances by Carey Mulligan, check out her most recent movie PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. You’ll want to watch my review of that movie before you see it though because of its subject matter. Carey Mulligan is sure to receive an Oscar nomination for her outstanding performance in that role where she plays a young, beautiful woman. In THE DIG, she appears 20 years older!
A lot of the camerawork looks like it’s hand-held because so many scenes are shot up close and personal, a good choice.
The film is well crafted and beautiful to look at as a period piece.
Be patient while the many layers of the story and its characters unfold.
The emotive score by Stefan Gregory is lovely and effective.
You just might look at artifacts in a museum differently the next time you go.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

It’s a VERY slow-moving movie.
Did Ralph Fiennes put a cotton ball under his lower lip or something? Every time he spoke, I was completely distracted, trying to figure out what was going on with his mouth. Don’t get me wrong…I still love him as an actor.
Lily James doesn’t show up in the movie until almost a full hour into it. I absolutely adored Lily James in the live remake of CINDERELLA. She was PERFECT in it. In that movie, she played the daughter of Ben Chaplin, so it was SUPER weird seeing her kiss him as his wife in this film. I wanted to see more of her story in the movie.
Not a lot happens in this very straight-forward, almost dry telling of history.
Not much humor.
There’s no specific villain other than time itself.
There’s no urgency to the story. Perhaps that’s intentional as time slowly marches on…