The Dig (2021)
Country: GB
Technical: col 112m
Director: Simon Stone
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan, Lily James, Ben Chaplin, Ken Stott
Synopsis:
On the eve of WW2 a Suffolk widow hires an amateur archaeologist to investigate the barrow-like mounds on her property, and before long a variety of individuals are involved in a dig whose links with mortality have implications for them all in differing ways.
Review:
A sensitive portrait of a cusp moment, not unlike A Month in the Country or The Shooting Party, which manages on the flimsiest of dramatic pretexts to draw the viewer into the inner lives of its characters, much of which is attained through looks and overlapped dialogue, as if conventional shot-reverse-shot blocking would expose the banality of the material. The makers need not have worried, and indeed after a while this mannerism becomes irksome, for it draws some of the life blood from the performances, and we are left with one of those understated British films often accused of inviting us to be nostalgic for former times and former customs. The beauty of the locations standing in for Sutton Hoo and its surroundings underscores this misplaced nostalgia, when, as Basil Brown, whose tribute this is, we should be celebrating the continuity of a human handprint stretching out across the ages. Nevertheless, this is an affecting piece of work.
Country: GB
Technical: col 112m
Director: Simon Stone
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan, Lily James, Ben Chaplin, Ken Stott
Synopsis:
On the eve of WW2 a Suffolk widow hires an amateur archaeologist to investigate the barrow-like mounds on her property, and before long a variety of individuals are involved in a dig whose links with mortality have implications for them all in differing ways.
Review:
A sensitive portrait of a cusp moment, not unlike A Month in the Country or The Shooting Party, which manages on the flimsiest of dramatic pretexts to draw the viewer into the inner lives of its characters, much of which is attained through looks and overlapped dialogue, as if conventional shot-reverse-shot blocking would expose the banality of the material. The makers need not have worried, and indeed after a while this mannerism becomes irksome, for it draws some of the life blood from the performances, and we are left with one of those understated British films often accused of inviting us to be nostalgic for former times and former customs. The beauty of the locations standing in for Sutton Hoo and its surroundings underscores this misplaced nostalgia, when, as Basil Brown, whose tribute this is, we should be celebrating the continuity of a human handprint stretching out across the ages. Nevertheless, this is an affecting piece of work.
Country: GB
Technical: col 112m
Director: Simon Stone
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan, Lily James, Ben Chaplin, Ken Stott
Synopsis:
On the eve of WW2 a Suffolk widow hires an amateur archaeologist to investigate the barrow-like mounds on her property, and before long a variety of individuals are involved in a dig whose links with mortality have implications for them all in differing ways.
Review:
A sensitive portrait of a cusp moment, not unlike A Month in the Country or The Shooting Party, which manages on the flimsiest of dramatic pretexts to draw the viewer into the inner lives of its characters, much of which is attained through looks and overlapped dialogue, as if conventional shot-reverse-shot blocking would expose the banality of the material. The makers need not have worried, and indeed after a while this mannerism becomes irksome, for it draws some of the life blood from the performances, and we are left with one of those understated British films often accused of inviting us to be nostalgic for former times and former customs. The beauty of the locations standing in for Sutton Hoo and its surroundings underscores this misplaced nostalgia, when, as Basil Brown, whose tribute this is, we should be celebrating the continuity of a human handprint stretching out across the ages. Nevertheless, this is an affecting piece of work.