“The Dig” is lovely viewing both above and below the surface
Arriving in a winter that’s bleak for reasons that stretch beyond the cold, gloomy weather pervading some of the country at the moment, “The Dig” gets a bump for its myriad gorgeous images of the English countryside.
Set in Suffolk in 1939, in the days before the onset of World War II, “The Dig” is based on a novel inspired by the true story of the excavation of one of the Sutton Hoo burial sites. The lovely film lands on Netflix this week following a two-week limited theatrical release.
Let this film into your home at your earliest convenience.
It isn’t a perfect movie by any means. Ultimately, it is populated by enough ancillary characters that several of them feel at least somewhat underdeveloped.
That said, the rural scenery — captured lavishly and lovingly by director of photography Mike Eley (“Made in Italy,” “Blackbird”) — complements memorable performances by stars Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman,” “The Great Gatsby”) and Ralph Fiennes (“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” the “Harry Potter” movies), as well as supporting players including Lily James (“Rebecca,” “Darkest Hour”).
Mulligan portrays Edith Pretty, a wealthy widow whose property contains, along with a grand manor house, a group of unusual mounds. Interested in having them excavated, she is
Carey Mulligan in “The Dig.”
unable to secure the participation of museum officials in the endeavor with the likelihood that the country soon will be at war.
After some haggling, Edith is able to hire excavator and amateur archeologist Basil Brown (Fiennes). She retains his services despite having been told he is “unorthodox and untrained.”
“I’m not untrained,” he says. “I’ve been on digs since I was old enough to hold a trowel. My father taught me.”
And, he says, he’s always wanted to see these mounds.
“We’re standing in someone’s graveyard, I reckon,” he says. And, he reckons, as does she, these are Viking burial mounds.
The mounds won’t give away their treasures without a fight, however. After warning Edith she is standing in a potentially precarious position in a dug-out portion, he takes her place and almost immediately is swallowed by an avalanche of dirt. “The Dig” is otherwise free of life-or-death incidents, but director Simon Stone (“The Daughter”) makes the most of this one; so tension-filled are the next moments, as the frantic hands of Edith and, soon, others work to unearth Basil — the cinematography boosted by the strong score by composer Stefan Gregory — that we almost believe we could lose Basil this early in the affair.
Some of the most lasting drama comes from museum officials, who are very interested in the site after Basil unearths significant elements of a ship apparently dragged there to be buried along with a great leader.
Basil comes to believe the ship belonged not to Vikings but instead to Anglo-Saxons, a notion that rewards him, at least initially, with derision from the snobbish Charles Phillips (Ken Stott, “The Hobbit” trilogy) of the British Museum.
As “The Dig” ultimately becomes about Edith endeavoring to maintain say on what happens on her land and to the artifacts pulled from it, as well as Basil getting the credit he deserves for the work, various subplots are developed, some more substantially than others.
While short of a classic, “The Dig” is lovely in more ways than one and works its way into you.