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In May 1939, as Europe lurched towards war, amateur excavator/archaeologist Basil Brown, hired to dig up the huge mounds on Edith Pretty's property in Suffolk, struck gold (literally). First, he came across the skeleton of an 88-foot ship dating to the Anglo-Saxon period. This was the first phase of what Sue Brunning, curator at the British Museum, has called "one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time, certainly in British archeology but I would argue in the world." The next phase was discovering the burial chamber within the ship, filled with a treasure trove of almost perfectly-preserved artifacts, made from gold and garnet: a stunning helmet, shoulder clasps, a golden belt buckle. Pretty donated the artifacts to the British Museum, where they sit to this day, known as the "Sutton Hoo find." This fascinating story is the subject of Netflix's new film "The Dig," directed by Simon Stone , with Moira Buffini adapting John Preston's novel for the screenplay.

Basil Brown ( Ralph Fiennes ) is a humble man, of working-class origins, who was taught how to excavate archaeological sites by his father and his grandfather before him. Edith Pretty ( Carey Mulligan ), a widowed woman living on a huge estate with her small son Robert ( Archie Barnes ), hires Basil away from the Ipswich Museum to dig up the mounds on her property. Basil doesn't have high hopes. These sites have been picked over by people for centuries, he informs her. She offers him more money than the museum, so he gets to work. Young Robert latches on to Basil as a new father-figure, and cavorts around on the mound as Basil digs. At first Basil utilizes just a small ad-hoc team, but after the ship is revealed, throngs of people descend onto Suffolk, wanting a piece of the action.

Told with simplicity and grace, and a sensitivity to the pastoral Suffolk landscape of wide fields and wider skies, "The Dig" is often quite thrilling, particularly in the dig's initial phases, when it's just Basil and Edith discussing how to proceed. Edith had a youthful interest in archaeology, and was accepted to university. Her father nixed those plans. She took care of her father through his long illness, and only got married after he died. This sad backstory is described in just one or two lines, but it's all over Mulligan's pinched determined face, dogged by loss and disappointment. Father-dominated her whole life, now widowed, in very poor health herself, she makes the decision to dig up those mounds, even though war is imminent.

The first half of the film is mostly Mulligan and Fiennes, and there's an interesting dynamic at work. They come from two totally different worlds and classes. But they intersect in important ways. They share a passion for knowledge, for discoveries of the linkages between eras and peoples. Tutankhamun's tomb was excavated in 1922 by British Egyptologist Harold Carter, whom Edith name-drops at one point. Edith would have been a teenager in 1922. One can imagine how that world-changing event—and seeing those artifacts for the first time—would have filled her with wonder and awe. She has a feeling about those mounds in her yard. She has a feeling something is down there. When Basil discovers the ship, he declares it sixth/seventh century Anglo-Saxon, and this is at first scoffed at by the "experts." But he's right.

The plot thickens when people descend onto the land, to continue the dig, and jostle for credit. Ken Stott plays Charles Phillips, a famous archaeologist, who declares the site far too important to be in the hands of Basil, an amateur with no formal education. Part of the new excavation team is Stuart Piggot ( Ben Chaplin ) and his budding-archaeologist wife Peggy ( Lily James ). Edith's cousin Rory ( Johnny Flynn , charming as always) takes photographs of the dig. "The Dig" loses a little steam during this section, when it gets side-tracked by Peggy's dissatisfaction in her marriage. Stuart seems just a little bit too into one of his male colleagues ( Eamon Farren ), and Rory is so friendly and gentle and makes Peggy feel things she's never felt in her marriage. These complicated emotional matters arrive over an hour into the film, far too late to have any real staying power. Basil mostly disappears during this section, and the film really misses him.

But this larger ensemble is eventually shuffled into the overall mix. What matters is the dig itself. Stone's attention to detail is crucial: he shows how a dig must proceed, the dangers of a dig, how the artifacts are discovered and then removed from the dirt—the way this is presented helps non-archaeologically-minded audience members understand what is happening and how. You believe in Fiennes' expertise. You believe in Peggy's too. The other element is the approach of war. RAF planes roar over the field with increasing regularity. Everyone knows that once war is declared the digging will have to cease. They're all fired up with a sense of urgency.

There are moments of emotion and triumph, especially during the sequences of discovery, but the mood overall is understated, quiet, thoughtful. Phillips makes an impassioned speech about what the "Sutton Hoo find" means, and it's an important thematic element. Common wisdom assumed the Anglo-Saxons were violent savage marauders, but the exquisite artifacts discovered showed "they had art. They had culture." The Sutton Hoo find represented a shift in consciousness around shared ancestry and legacy, and a sense of ownership over the collective past. These themes are all present in "The Dig" but nothing is underlined or punched up to amplify significance.

Instead, you get Edith and Basil locking eyes across the hole in the ground, speechless, two misfit outsiders realizing they were right, there is something down there, and it is beyond their wildest dreams.

Now on Netflix.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

The Dig (2021)

Rated PG-13

112 minutes

Carey Mulligan as Edith Pretty

Ralph Fiennes as Basil Brown

Lily James as Peggy Preston

Johnny Flynn as Rory Lomax

Ben Chaplin as Stuart Piggott

Ken Stott as Charles Phillips

Monica Dolan as May Brown

• Simon Stone

Writer (novel)

• John Preston
• Moira Buffini

Cinematographer

• Stefan Gregory

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‘The Dig’ Review: Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes on a Treasure Hunt

A small team makes a groundbreaking discovery in this fictionalized account of an actual archaeological expedition close to home.

By Glenn Kenny

Carey Mulligan’s range is a thing of wonder. If you’ve already seen her as an avenging American in “Promising Young Woman,” watching her in “The Dig” may induce something like whiplash. Here she portrays, with unimpeachable credibility, Edith, an upper-class English widow and mother in the late 1930s who is fulfilling a dream too long deferred.

The dream is to dig up her backyard. It’s a big one, mind you, on her estate in Suffolk, dotted by what appear to be ancient burial mounds. To this end, Edith, whose youthful interest in archaeology was squelched on account of her sex, hires Basil Brown, a determined freelance archaeologist played with stoic mien and working-class-tinged accent, by Ralph Fiennes.

Once the work begins, it becomes clear that something big is underground — this movie by Simon Stone, and the novel upon which it’s based, is a fictionalized account of the discovery of the treasure-filled Sutton Hoo , one of the biggest archaeological finds of the 20th century.

Brown’s crew increases, taking in a dashing cousin of Edith’s (Johnny Flynn, bouncing back from the grievous “Stardust”) and a discontented married couple (Ben Chaplin and Lily James). Big Archaeology tries to horn its way in. Much drama ensues.

Weighty themes are considered here: the question of who “owns” history; the corrosive effects of class inequality; the potentially tragic intertwining of sexual repression and loneliness. To its credit, this consistently interesting and at times engrossing picture declines to strike any of its notes with a hammer. Trading on the great British art of understatement, it’s scrupulous, sober, and tasteful throughout.

The Dig Rated PG-13 for themes and language. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

Review: ‘The Dig’ unearths rich emotions in an England on the brink of war

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Sometimes you just don’t want a movie to end. The characters are so vivid and multidimensional, the milieu so inviting, the circumstances so compelling, you don’t want to let go. “The Dig,” starring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes, is such a movie.

Suffolk, England, with the nation on the verge of war with Germany in 1939, may not sound comforting, but you would be surprised. Despite the prosaic title taken from the source novel by John Preston (based on the true story of the discovery of the Sutton Hoo treasure), “The Dig” is a tale bathed in warm nostalgia and a romanticism steeped in British stoicism, one that allows room for not only the melancholy of classic melodrama, but also sharp wit and a genuine sense of wonder.

For the record:

2:18 p.m. Jan. 31, 2021 An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of the Sutton Hoo archaeological find as Sutton Loo.

From the moment Fiennes’ no-nonsense working-class excavator Basil Brown pedals his bicycle up the drive of the manor belonging to Mulligan’s upper-class widow Edith Pretty, “The Dig” charts a path that admittedly appears to be straightforward at first impression. With local museums rushing to finish projects before the impending war, Basil has been summoned to dig up several mounds, presumed to be ancient burial grounds, on the Pretty property. The key question is how ancient? Could they be Viking, or even older?

Once the pair negotiate a fair price, and in spite of their class difference, the proper Edith and the diligent Basil connect over their shared interest in archaeology and mysteries of the past. The mother of a young son, Robert (Archie Barnes), and in failing health, Edith has much on her mind, and Mulligan is terrific at projecting this inner life. It’s a nicely mature role for the actor as a complement to her very different, darkly comic performance in “Promising Young Woman.”

Fiennes , equally at home as a debonair aristocrat or as evil incarnate, here grounds the movie as the sturdy Basil, a self-educated polymath, long underappreciated in a field that values diplomas over field work. His good-natured ease with the curious Robert, whose interests are in the cosmos, belies a latent sadness that infuses his work.

As the war becomes imminent, a virtual circus comes to town in the form of British Museum experts and their entourage, tipped off to a discovery made by Basil that significantly raises the stakes of the project. The new arrivals, including married archaeologists Stuart and Peggy Piggott (Ben Chaplin and Lily James) and Edith’s dashing cousin Rory Lomax (Johnny Flynn), transform the narrative in surprising ways. James is especially poignant as a young woman who, stifled professionally and personally, seizes the moment. (The gender and class biases experienced by Peggy and Basil, respectively, echo those recently seen in “Ammonite.” )

Screenwriter (and playwright) Moira Buffini and director Simon Stone admirably juggle the additional characters and storylines, reaching a satisfying mixture of resolution and unresolved curiosities. The richness of the narratives could easily have sustained a limited series.

As with most films involving archaeology, “The Dig” has no shortage of easy-to-reach metaphors, but Buffini and Stone take a broader poetic approach. Existential questions about how we’re remembered, cosmic time and our responsibilities to one another are nimbly woven into the life-altering events faced by each character.

One might quibble with the sentimentality or very modern attitudes toward acceptance on display, but it’s all rendered honestly. It’s an old-fashioned story told in an unexpected way.

Rated: PG-13, for brief sensuality and partial nudity Running time: 1 hour, 52 minutes Playing: Available Jan. 29 on Netflix

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Yes, ‘The Dig’ is a movie about archaeology. But it’s also a lovely meditation on what lasts.

On the eve of World War II, a self-taught English archaeologist, working at the behest of a Suffolk widow with a curiosity about what lay beneath several earthen mounds on her property, made what is considered to be one of the more significant discoveries in British archaeology.

That may be the summary description of the plot of “The Dig” — or at least the historical facts on which the film, and its source material, a 2007 novel by John Preston — is based. But it doesn’t begin to describe what this poetic little film is really about, or what it manages to say about the human condition. Gradually, and with the methodical patience of someone unearthing buried treasure with a tiny brush, “The Dig” reveals itself to be a story of love and estrangement, of things lost and longed for, of life and death — of what lasts and what doesn’t.

Directed by actor/filmmaker Simon Stone, from a richly allusive screenplay by Moira Buffini (“Tamara Drewe”), “The Dig” begins in a straightforward manner: Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) has just engaged the services of Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes), a local man who hides his sharp archaeological instincts behind his job description: “excavator” — a designation he has chosen for himself that, like the film itself, engages in misdirection.

Soon Basil’s discovery — that Edith’s estate is a burial ground of sorts — is laid bare, and the film proceeds with the standard fare of so many prestige British dramas. The coming war threatens the project, along with inclement weather and academic snobbery, personified by a pompous archaeologist from the British Museum (Ken Stott), who attempts to bigfoot Brown, commandeering his work site and dismissing his expertise, when word of the dig leaks out.

But slowly, slyly, the film deepens, becoming so much more than a period drama with pretty costumes, plummy accents and petty melodramas. In a sense, the tale of Brown’s work — while momentous both historically and personally, as a tale of stolen credit — is, like what has been dug up in the dirt, merely a vessel for larger meaning.

Subplots involving Edith’s health, her worries for her cousin (Johnny Flynn), who is about to go off to battle, and the unhealthy marriage of a couple hired to work on the dig (Lily James and Ben Chaplin) enrich the sidelines of the story. What might have been mere embellishments, meant to juice up a dusty narrative, are, in the hands of Buffini and Stone, by the end of the film, the whole point.

And what is that point?

On the most superficial level, it’s that archaeology — even when the practice is explicitly being undertaken in a place where a corpse has been lain — isn’t about the dead, but the living. “The Dig” is about the yearning, so human and, yes, so elusive and so futile, to fix the past so that it can be preserved.

Of course, it can’t, in any literal sense. Even the bits of iron, bronze and gold that get saved in museums won’t last forever, any more than the people who made then, or the emotions we feel, and sometimes fail to show, for a loved one.

Brown’s dig dispelled myths about the “Dark Ages,” but “The Dig” explodes another greater and more haunting illusion, with grace and at times exquisite sadness: that we are anything more than ghosts.

PG-13 . At the Angelika Film Center Mosaic and Cinema Arts; available Jan. 29 on Netflix. Contains brief sensuality and partial nudity. 112 minutes.

The Dig Review

If you’ve ever pined for ‘Time Team: The Movie’, The Dig is for you. Adapted from John Preston’s novel, Simon Stone’s film details one of Britain’s most notorious archaeological digs, the discovery in 1938 of an Anglo-Saxon ship in the burial mounds at the delightfully named Sutton Hoo estate in Suffolk. As anyone who’s followed Tony Robinson presiding over a three-day exploration of a Roman villa in the rain might guess, The Dig has to work hard to conjure up genuine dramas out of the minutiae of archaeology (this is no search for the Ark Of The Covenant), never really raising the pulse rate, but it gets by on strong performances, some gorgeous filmmaking and the always winning idea of good people coming together to do good things.

The heart of the film is the relationship between Lady Edith Pretty ( Carey Mulligan , in a completely different mode from Promising Young Woman ), the widowed landowner who owns the grounds on which the burial mounds are situated, and salt-of-the-earth Basil Brown ( Ralph Fiennes ), an untrained excavator who she commissions (not without money haggles) to uncover their secrets. There are conflicts — the battle between the amateur Basil and Edith and the British Museum (represented here by Ken Stott ) for ownership of the discovery; Edith’s secret illness; an effective set-piece where the site collapses on a key character — but little that truly grips. What is refreshing, however, is Edith and Basil never begin a romantic relationship; instead, it’s a meeting of minds, people who form an intellectual intimacy, and Mulligan and Fiennes play it effortlessly. There’s also an infectious sense of wonder about uncovering history (“The Dark Ages are no longer dark”), rooted in the idea that the past gives hope for the future.

For a film partly about the qualities of Suffolk soil, _The Dig_ could have done with a bite more dirt and grit.

As the story takes place on the precipice of Britain joining World War II, the notion of art surviving for centuries but life itself being very fleeting comes to the fore in The Dig ’s less successful B story. After married archaeologists Stuart ( Ben Chaplin ) and Peggy Piggott ( Lily James ) join the dig, the latter only hired because her eight-stone frame won’t disrupt the fragile site, Peggy is pulled into the orbit of Edith’s cousin Rory Lomax ( Johnny Flynn ), waiting for a call-up from the RAF. While Chaplin and James’ characters are drawn as mismatched in painfully obvious ways, the affair itself is a thin romance-with-a-threat-hanging-over-it that feels overly sudsy in places and on the nose thematically in others (“If 1,000 years passed in an instant, what would be left of us?”).

Best known for Billie Piper ’s Yerma on stage, sophomore filmmaker Stone, working with DP Mike Eley, creates a beautiful-looking film, full of English pastoral beauty and Malick-y lyricism (count the tracking shots of Mulligan moving through long grass in pleated trousers). But perhaps, for a film partly about the qualities of Suffolk soil, The Dig could have done with a bite more dirt and grit.

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In Theaters and Digital

The dig - movie review.

In the British period drama, The Dig , director Simon Stone ( The Daughter ) uses a real life historic archaeological dig to explore themes of time, mortality, our connection to the past, and the impact each of us has on the future. With the aid of Mike Eley ’s spectacular cinematography, which leverages the sparse but breathtaking Suffolk grasslands, the result is a superbly crafted slice of British life with a heaping helping of history thrown in for good measure.

As the drumbeats of war rage in 1939 Europe, wealthy young widow Edith Pretty ( Carey Mulligan ) plays a hunch when she hires excavator Basil Brown ( Ralph Fienne s) to explore what she believes to be ancient burial mounds on her vast Suffolk estate.

On the people side of the story, there are many wrinkles and folds, a couple of which are reflected in Edith Pretty’s own story. First, there is the fact that she is forced to reconcile her own time on Earth when it is revealed that she has a terminal heart condition. With her young son, Robert, there’s the question of who will take care of him and how. There’s also an extramarital affair that breaks out involving married archaeological couple Stuart ( Ben Chaplin, The Thin Red Line ) and wife Peggy ( Lily James, Baby Driver ), that is complicated by Rory’s call to war.

Speaking of war, Stone does an excellent job of juxtaposing the serene English countryside with roiling conflict and danger – from both humans and impending war. As the timeline progresses, we notice what were once rather small flocks of British Spitfires flying over grow in numbers and frequency as they rumble across the cloudy skies. The serenity is shattered when one of the planes sputters out and crashes on the farm, killing its pilot.

Stone , who adapts from the 2007 John Preston novel (inspired by true events), deploys many clever little storytelling devices throughout the film, including one in which he detaches bits of character dialogue and lays them over the scene like a voice-over narrative. It’s a nice touch and a quite brilliant tactic that adds another layer to the film’s many.

Mulligan follows her scorching performance in this year’s Promising Young Woman and delivers yet another memorable turn that, quite honestly – along with an equally strong performance from Fiennes – makes the entire film work. Also starring Monica Dolan (TV’s Black Mirror ) as Basil’s caring wife, and Ken Stott ( The Hobbit films) as the curmudgeonly government archaeologist, The Dig is a beautifully rendered experience that, despite a somewhat calculated setup and deliberate pacing, delivers great emotional impact. You just might learn something about history as well.

The Dig is now playing on Netflix .

Home Video Distributor: Available on Blu-ray Screen Formats: Subtitles : Audio: Discs: Region Encoding:

MPAA Rating: Unrated. Runtime: 112 mins Director : Simon Stone Writer: Moira Buffini Cast: Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James Genre : Drama | War Tagline: Nothing stays lost forever. Memorable Movie Quote: "There are some things we just can't succeed at no matter how hard we try." Distributor: Netflix Official Site: https://www.netflix.com/title/81167887 Release Date: January 29, 2021 DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: Synopsis : An ancient treasure emerges from the soil as history, heartache and dreams intertwine – and a family faces an uncertain future.

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Dignified, subtle historical drama has sensuality, smoking.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie's dominant theme is about legacy in time

Basil Brown is a working-class man who can't affor

Two intensely perilous moments: A character is bur

Breasts and other body parts are revealed when a w

Frequent smoking, both cigarettes and a pipe.

Parents need to know that The Dig is a drama based on John Preston's historical novel about the 1939 archeological discovery of Sutton Hoo in England. An air of impending death hangs over the story, both in the sense of England reluctantly joining World War II and in the illness of main character Edith (Carey…

Positive Messages

The movie's dominant theme is about legacy in times of death and uncertainty. Be open to discovering the truth. The true treasure is the relationships we forge.

Positive Role Models

Basil Brown is a working-class man who can't afford a university education so instead learns on his own -- including becoming an amateur archeologist, writing reference books, and ultimately making a great historical discovery. Two women pursue archeology, a male-dominated field, especially in the 1930s and '40s.

Violence & Scariness

Two intensely perilous moments: A character is buried alive, and a plane crash happens off camera. Parental loss is impending due to the main character's illness; it's heartbreaking when her young son sobs because he believes that it was his responsibility to "look after his mother."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Breasts and other body parts are revealed when a woman takes a bath, although key sensitive areas remain hidden. Passionate kissing leads to implied sex. Subtle attraction develops between two characters. The side of a breast is exposed as a woman tries to entice her husband into having sex.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Dig is a drama based on John Preston's historical novel about the 1939 archeological discovery of Sutton Hoo in England. An air of impending death hangs over the story, both in the sense of England reluctantly joining World War II and in the illness of main character Edith ( Carey Mulligan ). Viewers understand that her young son will soon be an orphan with potentially no surviving family; it's heartbreaking when he sobs because he believes that it was his responsibility to "look after his mother." The film's messages, though, are more about curiosity, teamwork, and legacy -- the idea that our actions can stand the test of time. The "stiff upper lip" attitude of pre-war-England lends itself to creating emotionally reserved characters. Parents may want to use the opportunity to discuss how characters successfully persuade others by using calm, tactfully delivered words. All of this properness means that some iffy content may go over younger viewers' heads: You have to be able to read between the lines to realize that a married man is feeling attracted to another man -- or realize that his wife is making a sexual overture. Expect brief partial female nudity (the most sensitive areas are covered) and a moment of passion that leads to sex. Scenes of peril include a character being buried alive and a plane crash (off camera); character also smoke both pipes and cigarettes frequently, which is accurate for the era. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 2 parent reviews

Ruined a true story.

Building the future by unearthing the past, what's the story.

Based on real events (which were dramatized in John Preston's historical novel), THE DIG follows wealthy widow Edith Pretty ( Carey Mulligan ) as she hires amateur archeologist Basil Brown ( Ralph Fiennes ) to excavate what appear to be ancient burial mounds on her countryside property in Suffolk, England. As the country prepares to enter World War II -- and Pretty's health declines -- they hasten to complete the project.

Is It Any Good?

Graceful, restrained, and eloquent: The tone, aesthetic, and delivery of this drama match that of its aristocratic main character. Magnificently well-woven, the complexities of the story also resemble the excavation -- it's slow and steady, and we must keep brushing away the dust and pay close attention to slight details to discover the inner lives of the subjects. Intense feelings are bubbling under the surface but never expressed. Even the slights and jabs directed at gender and class are understated.

While little is said in The Dig , much is understood ... and yet it's hard to distinguish exactly what it's trying to say. Gentle whispers that we live on through our actions blow around like dandelion fuzz, contrasting sharply with the abundance of blatant metaphors. For example, a short time after Brown speaks with Edith about potential riches to be found buried in the mound, the dirt collapses on him, and she digs him out -- yep, Mr. Brown is the real treasure here. Less obvious is director Simon Stone's choice to play dialogue over scenes in which the characters are shown not speaking. Once or twice, sure. But used repeatedly, the device becomes disconcerting. Still, The Dig is artful, elegant, and educational. All of this may sound enticing if you're an adult, but expect kids to be a bit confounded by the nuance. Reading between the lines isn't usually the strong suit of the young, and so for them to get the most out of the film, this is a gem that may need to stay undiscovered until they're a tad older.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how we can be comforted by legacy while dealing with loss. Is there a right or a wrong way to grieve?

How do the characters in The Dig demonstrate restraint? Imagine this story being told as a reality show: How would it be different? In comparing the two, how is self-control an important tool in accomplishing a goal?

How is this a team effort? Did the professional crew add value to the excavation? And how did Basil Brown and his team add value once the museum's experienced team came in? Why is teamwork an important life skill?

Young Robert cries because he believes he's failed to "look after his mother." Why do you think well-meaning people say things like this or "you're the man of the house now" to children after parental loss? Can that do more harm than good?

Carey Mulligan, who's in her mid-30s, plays Edith Pretty at 56. And 50-year-old Ben Chaplin plays Stuart Piggott at 29. Female actors often say that fewer parts become available to them as they age, while male actors tend to work more as they age. Do you consider this movie's casting ageist or age blind?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 15, 2021
• On DVD or streaming : January 29, 2021
• Cast : Carey Mulligan , Ralph Fiennes , Lily James
• Director : Simon Stone
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Great Boy Role Models , Great Girl Role Models , History
• Character Strengths : Curiosity , Teamwork
• Run time : 112 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : brief sensuality and partial nudity
• Last updated : February 17, 2023

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The Dig Reviews

The superb acting and gorgeous cinematography, however, isn’t enough to stop The Dig from getting a little side-tracked and bogged down in unimportant side plots and characters who don’t add much to the story.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Apr 26, 2024

Poetic, wistful and elevated with exquisite imagery, The Dig romanticises the unearthing of history.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 11, 2023

It’s really something when a film is not too concerned with the aesthetic but will find the beauty in discovery of one’s own. The Dig is a good picture, wonderfully acted (Ralph Fiennes is tremendous here), and an engrossing reimagining.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2022

The Dig’s story may be a tad overstuffed, but its entrancing ensemble – which features standout stars such as Carey Mulligan and Lily James – invites investment.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 1, 2022

There’s an almost Malickian beauty to how cinematographer Mike Eley shoots these early scenes. The fluidity of his camera movements, the striking angles, the way nature is admired through his lens – its absolutely gorgeous filmmaking.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5 | Aug 17, 2022

A modest film about an unsung hero, The Dig is an entertaining watch even if its lacking in emotional impact.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 1, 2022

If you think you will be bored, it's totally understandable. But you're also wrong.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Dec 23, 2021

Gentle. Concerned with history. Refreshingly adult.

Full Review | Sep 13, 2021

The Dig charms with both a reverence for the past and thoughtful exploration of life and death.

Full Review | Aug 28, 2021

A rich array of subdued performances and exceptional handheld cinematography grace a delicately woven British period piece. A finely observed film made up of small, touching moments, The Dig is testament to the virtues of understated acting.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 3, 2021

The Dig fails to address archaeology on anything more than a surface level, ignoring the fascinating psychological and emotional implications.

Full Review | Jun 5, 2021

The Dig is most definitely a learning experience, but it's also a chance to observe a place that seemingly stands apart from the rest of the country.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 23, 2021

There's a great film to be unearthed from John Preston's 2007 novel, but this isn't it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 23, 2021

"a meditation on the fragility of life, how we're all connected, and what we leave behind."

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 20, 2021

Don't be fooled by the digging and the dirt, this Netflix feature is one of those rare hidden gems just waiting to be unearthed. Quintessentially English, full of charm and tenacity Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan put in star performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 18, 2021

Strong leading performances and a handful of beautifully crafted scenes sit sit by side with much clunkier and more derivative material.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 12, 2021

Great performances from Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Mar 6, 2021

Despite its shortcomings though, The Dig remains a touching drama. It is a well-shot and well-acted look into an intriguing account from history...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 6, 2021

By the end, The Dig has become a moving meditation on both long ago history and our own daily mortality. Strongly recommended.

Full Review | Mar 6, 2021

The elegance in The Dig lies in what it says about the continuity of life rather than the finality of death.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 28, 2021

‘The Dig’ Excavates the British Stiff-Upper-Lip Costume Drama

By David Fear

A quick methadone hit for anyone still experiencing Merchant-Ivory withdrawal symptoms, The Dig (streaming on Netflix starting January 29th) is a throwback to a bygone era in more ways than one. The year is 1939, the countryside is English, the upper lips are most definitely stiff. Britain stands on the verge of war, as the RAF planes constantly buzzing past can attest. Behind a large manor in Suffolk, there are a number of jutting, earthen mounds that suggest the possibility of ancient artifacts buried beneath the soil. Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan), a widow of some taste and renown, has hired a local named Basil Brown ( Ralph Fiennes ) to help her locate any potential findings. The gentleman is not an archaeologist, as he’s quick to point out — he’s merely an amateur “excavator” with a deep knowledge of history, a shyness and modesty in his manner, and a seemingly endless supply of dirt-specked tweed suit jackets.

Edith feels that the land on her estate may be home to a Viking burial ground; Basil thinks there’s something even older lurking under there. As various posh accents bump up against working-class ones, they eventually do discover quite a trove of corroded, centuries-old flotsam and jetsam, which attracts the attention of no less then the British museum. It will eventually be known as the Sutton Hoo Treasure, and were this not lifted from the real-life discovery of a major historical find, you’d have hoped that this dig might also unleash a few disturbed spirits, ready to turn Edith’s estate into a gothic haunted house. No such luck, alas. The only specters here are the Ghosts of Miramax Prestige-Projects Past.

And The Dig really does feel like a movie out of its time, as if the past 20 years of filmmaking hadn’t really happened, it was still normal for movie stars to mope around in class-conscious 20th-century finery instead of capes, and shows like Downton Abbey hadn’t come round to fill the Brit period-melodrama gap. It’d feel like something extracted from a boutique studio’s vault sealed in the 1990s even if the star of The English Patient wasn’t involved. Incidents pile up on one another like sedimentary rock layers — there is a cave-in, a plane crash, someone has a bad ticker (damn rheumatic fever aftereffects!), furtive glances exchanged between numerous parties, an illicit romance or two. Supporting characters drift in and out of the picture, from Edith’s young son to Brown’s neglected yet supportive wife. The arrival of a museum muckety-muck ( The Hobbit’ s Ken Stott) and two married archeologists (Ben Chaplin and Lily James), along with Edith’s handsome photographer cousin ( Stardust’ s Johnny Flynn), complicate things further. A lot happens, with curiously little effect.

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Yet every so often, the film seems to hint that there’s something else happening beneath its exquisitely detailed, meticulously re-created production design — a restlessness buried right under its familiar based-on-a-true-story surface. Director Simon Stone and cinematographer Mike Eley keep nudging things gently into Terrence Malick territory, letting the camera roam behind and beside people in fields, or employing a wider-than-usual lens to give things a pleasantly unsteady, slightly off feel. (Someone’s been paying extremely close attention to the Emmanuel Lubezki method of drifting transcendentalism — Chivo touches abound here.) Several compositions involving natural light, lens flare, and negative space — notably a shot of Fiennes lighting a pipe in the frame’s corner while clear blue sky dominates the rest — are breathtaking. A sequence in which he sits by a marsh’s edge and watches a ghostly ship pass by, reminiscent of what he’ll eventually uncover, is enough to give you goose bumps.

Whether these aesthetic touches are there to serve a larger purpose besides breaking up the narrative monotony, however, isn’t really clear. They could be insinuating that the past is an ever-changing state, constantly rocking the present even as history’s still unfolding, one Churchill radio address at a time. They could be positing that this simple man, steadfast in his devotion, may be in touch with the divine as he pushes back the dirt. They could be Malickisms for their own sake, or run-of-the-mill fandom homages emanating from behind the camera. Who can say, when there are so many windows to stare out of and vintage waistcoats to model, so many plot points to shuffle.

There’s not a single thing wrong with these kinds of red-carpet–friendly U.K. dramas, of course — if anything, The Dig may remind you how satisfying it was, once upon a time, to sit through so much decor-meets-repression cinema after sifting through the remains of your day. It’s simply that this film eventually sputters to its final justice-served disclaimer (it took decades for Brown to get credit for being the one who found these ancient totems) having given you little more than multiple servings of weak English tea. Even Fiennes and Mulligan, class acts both, start to seem bored. This is a passable substitute for the real thing. It could have burrowed so much deeper.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Dig’ on Netflix, a British Period Drama About Archaeology and Aching Hearts

Where to stream:.

• Carey Mulligan

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I hereby declare Netflix’s The Dig to be a significant contender for The Year’s Most British Movie. It’s a WWII-period BOATS ( Based On A True Story ) film featuring some, if not all, of the following elements: Repressed emotions, sprawling and heavily decorated estates, scads of plaid and/or bodices and/or boys in boy shorts and long stockings and/or men working hot and dirty jobs but wearing neckties anyway, melancholy longing, a Fiennes, the pursuit of an intellectual endeavor of literary and/or historic import or Judi Dench or Helen Mirren or Maggie Smith. These are not inherently bad things, but they’re very much the very specific things that tend to comprise the genre’s intense and highly concentrated whiteness.

THE DIG : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Suffolk, 1939. Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) lives on many countryside acres in the many rooms of a cushy manse. She has hired humble excavator and amateur archaeologist Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to unearth what appear to be ancient or semi-ancient burial mounds on her property, and hopefully he’s OK with £2 a week, living in the quarters with the driver and housekeeper, two men and their best digging gear — read: shovels and sweatervests — to help, and her son Robert (Archie Barnes) scampering about in a cape. Being a quite lovely fellow, Basil, er, I mean, Mr. Brown , is fine with all of this. She’s a well-read and curious sort, and has a good feeling about what might be under there, and they share enthusiasm for this dig.

Mrs. Pretty is a widow and Mr. Brown, a couple decades or so her elder, gets letters from his wife every day but doesn’t feel compelled to read them. Will their lips touch? Yes! But only after the dig collapses on Mr. Brown, and he needs to be dug out and resuscitated. “Did you see something? While you were gone?” she asks him after he’s revived, thus establishing their intense, but thoroughly platonic intimacy. Mr. Brown soon finds what will come to be known as Sutton Hoo, a quite literal treasure trove of Anglo-Saxon gold in a boat that was hauled over land and used as a grave. It’s perhaps the most extraordinary archaeological dig in all of Great Britain, so once word gets out that an unlearn-ed commoner like Mr. Brown is in charge, a scholarly snob named Charles Phillips (Ken Stott) arrives to wrest control of the project IN THE NAME OF ENGLAND AND ALL ITS HAUGHTY SELF-IMPORTANCE. Of course, Mr. Brown is in fact fully capable, but doesn’t have a degree, and it takes some convincing of both sides for him to stay and collaborate. Mrs. Pretty promises Mr. Brown that he’ll receive credit for the discovery, and Mr. Brown no doubt relishes telling Mr. Phillips that he’s too heavy to walk through such delicate digging grounds.

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What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Fiennes’ involvement invokes some heavy The English Patient vibes here (note: I hated that movie, but I liked this one). It also has shades of Atonement , The Imitation Game , Darkest Hour , The King’s Speech … all perfectly decent company to be in, although The Dig is the quietest of the bunch.

Performance Worth Watching: Mulligan and Fiennes have strong period-movie game — as ever! — but don’t overlook Downton Abbey vet James, who makes an arguably superfluous character seem, if not essential, then a welcome shot of youth and additional warmth. She shows up halfway through the movie and gives us another achy soul to care about, so we don’t burn out on Mulligan’s melancholy and Fiennes’ doggedness.

Memorable Dialogue: Let’s start with the contemplative quote:

Mr. Lomax: If a thousand years were to pass in an instant, what would be left of us?

And now, the comic exchange:

Mr. Piggott, digging excitedly: Sort of… rusted lumps!

Mr. Phillips: Come on man, where’s your training?

Mr. Piggott: An amorphous mass of corroded objects, sir!

Sex and Skin: Only the most genteel and tasteful of Great British schtups. Also, Lily James lounging in a bathtub.

Our Take: The Dig is rich with the drama inherent in finding very old things in the dirt while some characters — and all of us, really — die slowly, some more slowly than others. Which is to say, if you’re not on the leisurely wavelength of this type of Very British Melodrama, with its understated bits of comedy and romance, leisurely approach to character development and pacing, lush costuming and art direction, gorgeous photography and depiction of very white people doing very white things, its rewards will be miserly.

Those of us who are psyched for 112 minutes of stately melodrama, however, will be pleased; it’s quite frequently a lovely film. Director Simon Stone and screenwriter Moira Buffini, adapting John Preston’s novel inspired by real people and events, strongly compel us to feel invested in the characters and situations scattered neatly among its handful of subplots, all of which convene under a finely considered umbrella idea: our temporary place in this time in this world, rendered all the more fragile by the stupid inevitability of war. It’s a film about who we were, are and will be; about the beauty of art and passion; about identity and function as individuals and a culture. It may also be about the great mystery of wool, and why British people insisted upon wearing it out in the blazing hot sun.

Sure, The Dig fulfills expectations of classical Oscar-bait formula, mostly for better, gilded as it is with intellectual ambitions and strong performances, showy landscapes and sweeping strings, metaphor and symbolism, joy and weeping, strength and frailty, summer wools and winter wools, itchy wools and scratchy wools. But at least it’s not a chilly watch.

Our Call: The Dig is comfort food for tea-time fetishists (and then some). STREAM IT.

Should you stream or skip the Oscar-bait period drama #TheDig on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) January 30, 2021

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .

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In Theaters

• Ralph Fiennes as Basil Brown; Carey Mulligan as Edith Pretty; Archie Barnes as Robert Pretty; Johnny Flynn as Rory Lomax; Lily James as Peggy Piggott; Ben Chaplin as Stuart Piggott; Danny Webb as John Grateley; Robert Wilfort as Billy Lyons; James Dryden as George Spooner; Joe Hurst as John Jacobs; Paul Ready as James Reid Moir; Peter McDonald as Guy Maynard; Ken Stott as Charles Phillips; Arsher Ali as William Grimes; Eamon Farren as John Brailsford; Monica Dolan as May Brown

Home Release Date

• January 15, 2021
• Simon Stone

Distributor

Movie review.

The Sutton Hoo Treasure was discovered in 1939 in Suffolk, England. The owner of the land where it was found, Edith Pretty, had long been interested in excavating what she believed to be burial mounds on the lot. However, after the death of her husband, she put off the project in order to grieve and focus on raising her son.

When she finally was able to revisit the mounds, the country was preparing for war. Thus, neither the British Museum nor the local Ipswich Museum were willing to send one of their experienced archaeologists to a site that might not even have anything valuable to find.

But Mrs. Pretty had a feeling . So she hired Basil Brown, an excavator, to take on the project.

Mr. Brown had worked with the Ipswich Museum on several digs before. But they didn’t take his work seriously, since he hadn’t been formally trained. However, Mr. Brown had been working on digs since he was old enough to hold a trowel. His father, like his grandfather before him, had taught him so much about soil that you could show him dirt from anywhere in Suffolk, and he could identify whose land it came from.

In the end, the work of this “untrained,” self-taught archaeologist wound up uncovering what is still considered the greatest buried treasure ever unearthed in the United Kingdom.

Positive Elements

There is contention throughout the film between Mr. Brown, Mrs. Pretty, and professionals from the museum. At first, the museum tries to bully Brown into abandoning Pretty’s project to help them on a Roman villa. But Pretty defends Brown, stating that it is his choice whom he works for. When the museum later realizes that Brown has discovered something valuable on Pretty’s lot, they try to remove him from the project since he isn’t “qualified. But Pretty stands up for him again, calling them out for their “snobbery” and insisting that Brown be given credit for discovery of the treasure.

Despite these efforts, the constant battle with the museum discourages Brown. However, his wife, May, reminds him that he never dug for the money or the glory; he always did it because he was good at it, and because he believed that learning about the past would teach future generations where they came from. This reminder sticks with him. Later on, when Pretty expresses her fear of dying, Brown tells her that their excavation proves that even in death, some part of us lives on to help teach those who come after—that a grave isn’t death but rather “life revealed.”

When Robert, Pretty’s son, learns that his mother’s “heartburn” is actually a fatal heart condition, he tells Brown that he feels like a failure for not being able to help her. But Brown tells him that it isn’t his fault, because some things are just beyond our control. He also encourages Robert to be strong for his mother in the days to come.

Spiritual Elements

A woman references Mark 12, where Jesus tells his disciples, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” She also wears a coin from that time period as a necklace, stating that she wears it for luck because of that passage. Someone else talks about Noah’s Ark.

Someone says that a partially eclipsed moon makes it seem as if “the gods are angry.” Mrs. Pretty mentions a local superstition that says if girls lie down on the mounds, they’ll become fertile. She also makes a few references to spiritualism, such as asking Brown if he saw any spirits when he nearly died.

Someone asks, “How the devil are you?”

Sexual Content

It is strongly implied throughout the film that a married man is actually gay (and this culminates when he goes into an inn room with another man). In addition, his wife falls in love with another man and nearly kisses him. She ends things with her husband before pursuing her other interest further, but they are still technically married when both go off with other men at the end.

A couple has sex, and we see a lot of skin (though nothing critical is shown). Several couples kiss throughout the movie. A couple of women also sit in men’s laps and embrace them.

A woman takes a bath (though, again, we don’t see anything critical). Later she removes her robe, and we see her bare back. A shirtless man digs a hole. A woman wears several midriff-baring tops.

Violent Content

Throughout the film, we see impending signs of war—pubs boarding up their windows, soldiers riding buses and sandbags being stacked against national monuments to protect them. And when it is announced that England is officially at war with Germany, many people are frightened.

One of the burial mounds collapses on top of Mr. Brown, and he nearly dies from suffocation. There are several tense moments as people dig him out of the dirt, remove it from his mouth and nostrils and perform CPR.

A plane crashes into a river, killing the pilot. We hear that a woman’s father drowned. Mrs. Pretty gets upset when her cousin joins the Royal Air Force, since she believes it’s a sure way for him to die. A little boy pretends to fire toy guns.

A woman distracts a young boy so he won’t see a dead body.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear three uses of “h—” and two uses of “d–n.” God’s name is misused seven times (twice as “Lord”), and Christ’s name is misused twice as well. Someone says, “Ye gods!” Another person says, “Good heavens!” Basil also exclaims “blast” several times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Characters smoke pipes and cigarettes. People drink at a pub. Sherry is served at a party. Someone says that a man is a heavy drinker.

Other Negative Elements

The people who work for the British and Ipswich museums are rude and condescending to Mr. Brown and Mrs. Pretty. They threaten Brown’s job, challenge Pretty’s claim to the treasure and later pressure her to donate it after an inquest declares her to be the true owner.

One of their archaeologists also insults a young woman, saying that he hired her to help on the dig not because of her expertise (as she previously believed) but because of her small size (since the man in question was overweight and could potentially damage the excavation site if he stood in it).

Children throw balls at a man’s vehicle as he drives through London making announcements about the war on a loudspeaker. A man gets cross with his wife after she failed to wake him up, making him appear to be late to work.

Although the Sutton Hoo treasure has been on display at the British museum since the end of World War II, it didn’t give credit to the man responsible for the dig, Basil Brown, until quite recently.

In spite of Mrs. Pretty’s constant adulations of Mr. Brown’s work, the museum didn’t want to recognize an amateur. They ignored the fact that he correctly identified the treasure as being from the Anglo-Saxon period—which largely contributed to the world’s knowledge of that historical time period. They couldn’t have cared less that he nearly died during the excavation when one of the walls caved in. And, when it was time to pack up and go home, it didn’t matter that he was the one who ensured the site was properly preserved so that future archaeologists could revisit and excavate further.

None of that mattered because when it was all said and done, Basil Brown was still self-taught and didn’t have a professional degree.

However, as evidenced by Brown’s response, it didn’t have to matter. Brown never dug because he wanted fame and riches. He dug because he wanted to preserve history. He wanted others to be able to learn from the past before it disappeared from the earth.

But The Dig has a few more controversies buried within than who discovered the treasure at the center of the story. Two people who help on the excavation have an affair because it becomes apparent that the woman’s husband is interested in men, and we do see some skin when they connect. Language, while infrequent and mild, is still present at times. And there are some intense moments both during the cave-in that nearly kills Brown and later on when a Royal Air Force pilot is killed in a plane crash.

As this film shows us, the British Museum has apparently learned a bit about preserving history, since Basil Brown’s name now appears next to Edith Pretty’s for the discovery of the Sutton Hoo treasure. But viewers may have to dig through some tough content to learn the same historical lesson.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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‘the dig’ review: an endearing lesson in life and history.

‘Digging down to meet the dead.’

The Dig is a delightful historical drama based on the true story of the 1939 excavation of an Anglo-Saxon ship. With excellent performances, The Dig weaves a beautiful story about how our histories can inform our present and future. Ralph Fiennes is as pleasant to watch as ever in The Dig , as Basil Brown, an excavator from the Ipswich Museum. He’s helping a woman named Mrs. Pretty (Carey Mulligan) excavate the mysterious mounds on her land, unsure what they will find. Buried treasure from vikings, perhaps?

Mrs. Pretty’s property is on an idyllic bit of English countryside in Sutton Hoo. If you’ve heard of Sutton Hoo before (or googled it), you may not be surprised by what is to be uncovered. However, if you’re unfamiliar with the English archaeological finds, there’s a bit of fun in the mystery of Mr. Brown’s and Mrs. Pretty’s search. Regardless, it’s still fun to watch the action progress in The Dig.

From early on in The Dig , we see that this excavation will not be a simple undertaking. There is quite a bit of land to excavate; too much for Mr. Brown to do on his own, so Mrs. Pretty enlists some help. Before the film hits the 30 minute mark, Mr. Brown, while talking to Mrs. Pretty about what they’re expecting to find, becomes trapped under dirt. This moment lends a bit of suspense to the scenes that are to come, as the dig gets underway. While The Dig is generally not a suspenseful film, these early scenes of discovery are exciting to watch.

Naturally, once word gets out about Mr. Brown’s incredible find, an archaeologist from the British Museum, Charles Phillips (Ken Stott) shows up to take over the dig. While at first Mr. Brown is terribly offended by this, he eventually returns to work on the dig that he discovered, along with employees of the British Museum. Basil Brown wants not only the credit for the dig, but also to be in charge. Despite the blow to his ego dealt by the British Museum, he’s motivated to continue with his work by his bond with both Mrs. Pretty and her son Robert.

Carey Mulligan delivers an excellent performance as Mrs. Edith pretty, a widow raising her son on her own. She’s fallen ill, and in dealing with her own mortality and questions of the afterlife, The Dig provides us with a story of the legacies we leave behind. Carey Mulligan deserves all the praise she will be getting about her versatility between this performance and Promising Young Woman .

While the bonds Basil Brown forms with the Pretty family are a crucial part of the narrative of The Dig, there are other relationships that don’t feel as important in the film, that are focused on anyway. Much time is spent with Peggy and Stuart Piggott (Lily James and Ben Chaplin); their emotionally disconnected marriage becomes a bit of a side-story to make room for a romance. The light romance of The Dig is not as interesting as the main storyline, though it may serve to appeal to a wider audience.

Anxieties about the war color the experiences of everyone in The Dig ; Mrs. Pretty’s cousin, Rory Lomax (Johnny Flynn) has to stop work on the dig when he’s called by the Royal Air Force. The drama of The Dig wraps up as Britain joins the war and we learn what happens to the treasures found by Basil Brown. While the war itself is not the focus of this film, we’re called to clearly see how the threat of World War II hangs overhead. Issues of the war aside,  The Dig is an extremely pleasant movie; sad moments are balanced out with heart-warming scenes. It feels cliched to call a British film  charming , but that’s exactly what it is.

If there’s one thing we’ve come to know that we can expect from Netflix, it’s that the quality of period dramas on the streaming service will be top-notch. The Dig does not let down in this regard; the costumes, sets, and soundtrack all perfectly set the atmosphere of England in 1939 (or so it’s easy to imagine). As such, there is a good bit of interpersonal drama and romance along with the narrative of the dig itself that will endear The Dig to all who enjoy period films.

The Dig comes to Netflix on 1/29/2021.

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The Dig (2021) – Movie Review

¡En español!

I did not expect to get so into The Dig . It looked like it was going to be a chiefly academic recap of a true story -that of the Sutton Hoo finding, as set up in the literal second scene of the film: Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan), a rich widow and mother of a young son, hires Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes), an archeological excavator, to dig up an ancient mound located in her property in Suffolk in 1939. She has a heart condition that she fears might claim her life any day now, and she’s certain there’s something under those mounds waiting to be discovered.

As it turns out, she’s right, and Basil finds remains of a burial site that at first appears Viking (and, therefore, relatively common as far as archeological remains go) but is quickly found to be much older, an enormous ship and tomb of an Anglo-Saxon dignitary (and, therefore, an earth-shattering discovery that would change the modern understanding of the British Middle Ages).

The film is surprisingly to-the-point about these developments, skipping from one to the next with confidence, but what surprised me is that along the way it works in little character scenes that will later develop into a moving emotional throughline, such that by the end the historical plot takes a back seat to the personal resolutions. Edith is concerned by her own mortality, as you would expect, but her involvement in the titular dig is also colored by her frustrated desire to have pursued an education; this puts her on a parallel course with Basil, who is not considered an archeologist by snobbish academics despite his unmatched practical experience. Halfway through the film, a young archeologist named Peggy (Lily James) joins the team and while the insight into her unhappy marriage was for me interesting enough for the secondary or tertiary subplot that it is, its rushed conversion into a love story with Edith’s cousin (Johnny Flynn, whom you might remember from Emma ) feels tacked in and cheapens her struggle.

In the end, the whole film rests on Carey Mulligan (who, in a kind of reverse- Mank , is playing significantly older) and Ralph Fiennes, both of them delivering understated performances that, much like the script, choose to tell transcendental stories through normalcy: Edith’s casual rejection of the stiff suits who try to boss her around is all the more delicious because of the nonchalance with which she puts them down. You’ll be intrigued by what happens with the ancient treasures everyone’s after, but it is these characters who will keep you invested.

The Dig on IMDb

La excavación (2021)

No esperaba que La excavación me gustara tanto. Al principio parecía que iba a ser un relato más bien académico de un acontecimiento real, el descubrimiento de Sutton Hoo, como lo explican en literalmente la segunda escena de la película: Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan), una viuda rica madre de un hijo pequeño, contrata a Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes), un excavador arqueológico, para que explore un antiguo túmulo que se encuentra en sus tierras, en Suffolk, en 1939. Edith padece una enfermedad cardíaca que teme que le costará la vida, y está segura de que bajo el túmulo se oculta algo que espera a ser descubierto.

Resulta que tenía razón, y Basil descubre los restos de un yacimiento que al principio parece vikingo (es decir, relativamente común dentro de los yacimientos que uno esperaría encontrar en la zona) pero que enseguida se revela como un enorme barco y tumba para un dignatario anglosajón (es decir, un descubrimiento histórico que revolucionará nuestro conocimiento de la cultura medieval británica).

Llama la atención lo directa que es la película con esta historia, saltando de una escena a la siguiente con aplomo, pero lo que me sorprendió más es que por el camino va introduciendo pequeños momentos de personaje que luego desarrolla para formar una base emocional que acaba tomando preferencia sobre el argumento propiamente dicho. Huelga decir que a Edith le preocupa su propia mortalidad, pero su pasión por la excavación también viene de su deseo frustrado de haber recibido una educación; su camino es paralelo al de Basil, a quien los arqueólogos pijos no consideran un igual a pesar de su apabullante experiencia práctica. A la mitad también se une al equipo una joven arqueóloga llamada Peggy (Lily James), y aunque la historia de su matrimonio infeliz es lo bastante interesante para el argumento secundario o terciario que es, la forma en que desemboca en una forzada historia de amor con el primo de Edith (Johnny Flynn, a quien quizás recuerdes de Emma ) desmerece su validez.

En última instancia, la película la llevan Carey Mulligan (quien hace una especie de Mank a la inversa al interpretar a un personaje mucho mayor que ella) y Ralph Fiennes, los dos con actuaciones que eligen contar historias trascendentales mediante la normalidad: la delicada forma que tiene Edith de poner en su sitio a los señores estirados que pretenden darle órdenes es deliciosa precisamente por la sencillez con la que los desprecia. Te intrigará lo que pasa con los valiosos tesoros que todo el mundo quiere para sí, pero serán los personajes los que mantengan tu interés hasta el final.

La excavación en IMDb

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The Dig review – a hole lot of buried rage

An Irish bog consumes two men seeking revenge and redemption, in Ryan and Andy Tohill’s tense thriller

T wins Ryan and Andy Tohill’s distinctive homecoming parable, further proof of Irish cinema’s resurgent boldness and versatility, finds a striking visual metaphor for the emotional labours required to find peace of mind nowadays. In the prologue’s teachable example of show-don’t-tell film-making, rough-hewn, edgy Ronan (Moe Dunford) returns to the boarded-up farmhouse he once called home with an apparent eye to starting afresh. An obstacle to the quiet life soon emerges, in the form of a crumpled older man, Sean (Lorcan Cranitch), observed digging up the adjoining peat bog. Why his quest agitates the prodigal farmhand is but gradually revealed; yet with admirable economy the Tohills and screenwriter Stuart Drennan establish a stand-off between men in small, dark holes who have sublimated all feeling into obsessive, possibly futile activity.

Certain shots framing these worker ants against the horizon reminded this viewer of Philip Haas’s underseen film of Paul Auster’s The Music of Chance, which set two disparate drifters to assembling a stone wall on an eccentric recluse’s estate. Yet the Tohills’ antagonists aren’t building but excavating, dragging themselves towards early or shallow graves; the idea of a long-buried past resurfacing in the Irish present carries a renewed resonance. Below the film’s mournful top layer, there lurks a simmering, suppressed violence. We fear relations between this pair will only deteriorate if either party finds what they’re looking for; and while Sean’s daughter Roberta initially holds out some prospect of escaping these ruts, tending Ronan’s calluses and keeping a lid on his rage, Emily Taaffe’s portrayal gives even this prospective peacemaker her own flinty secrets.

That interior/exterior tension informs the whole picture, which often resembles a chamber piece yanked, for its own good, into a wide open space. Cinematographer Angus Mitchell has a field day among these pitted landscapes and big brooding skies; this was evidently one of those shoots where everybody stood round waiting for the sun to go in . At times, The Dig may strain too hard for gravity: Roberta’s conspicuously filthy kitchen leaves us itching for a Brillo pad, and it’s a touch heavy-handed that closure should eventually be found at gunpoint. Yet it’s seen through and kept honest by committed performers who don’t mind getting their hands dirty: the bristling Dunford, haunted Cranitch and Francis Magee, as the old-school copper on everybody’s backs, etch subtly varied models of bruised, bloodied, borderline-toxic maleness.

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‘The Damned’ Review: In His Latest Look at America’s Margins, Roberto Minervini Travels Back to the Civil War

The Italian-born director has lived in the United States for more than two decades, bringing the insights of an outsider to overlooked communities in his first period piece.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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Set during the Civil War, a long way from the front lines, Roberto Minervini ’s “ The Damned ” continues the Italian helmer’s career-long examination of the rifts and affinities between overlooked segments of American society. Apart from one long, destabilizing battle with an unseen adversary, the portrayal is a relatively peaceful one, following a group of Union soldiers assigned to scout the Northwestern frontier in 1862. While the country is divided, this assignment brings together men of different backgrounds, fostering camaraderie and mutual respect (surprisingly, the topic of slavery never comes up, though God factors into multiple conversations).

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With their full beards and blunt features, the men in Minervini’s cast look less like professional actors than the authentic Civil War soldiers seen in daguerreotypes of the time (especially Tim Carlson, of the family featured in “Stop the Pounding Heart,” as the Sergeant). Characters have a way of drifting in and out of Minervini’s films, and “The Damned” is no different, despite its more structured premise. A select group of troops travel to Montana, bonding among themselves for a time, before a run-in with Confederate snipers drastically reduces their ranks.

Minervini’s style has always blurred the lines between documentary and fiction, and here — in Civil War reenactment mode, as participants play themselves in period garb — he covers the ambush the way a war photographer might. DP Carlos Alfonso Corral, who shot Minervini’s striking black-and-white doc “What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?,” chases after the soldiers as they duck for cover and attempt to return fire. Hidden by distant bushes, the enemy remains unseen, which makes the conflict that much more disconcerting.

Does “The Damned” really qualify as a war film? At times, the low-key approach may remind viewers more of Kelly Reichardt’s Oregon Trail saga, “Meek’s Cutoff,” in that both films (set less than two decades and two states apart) provide an alternative to the conventional Hollywood Western. For instance, “The Damned” doesn’t even bother to identify the names of its characters, rejecting the 20th-century focus on the individual — where heroic characters might be played by John Wayne or Henry Fonda — in favor of a collective sea of faces.

That’s something so many war movies get wrong: When men enlist in the Army, they agree to put the cause ahead of themselves. It becomes their duty to accept orders, however counterintuitive, whereas in Hollywood movies (of the past 50 years, at least), authority is nearly always wrong, and success is only possible when someone steps out of line and does what’s right. In reality, such behavior would almost surely get the fanatic (and many of his comrades) killed.

In a challenge to America’s own mythology, Minervini dispenses with such tropes, while allowing his characters — including a fresh-faced teen known only as ”Young Soldier” (Judah Carlson) — space to reflect on their reasons for signing up. They question the existence of God, debate the ideas of good and evil, and try to make sense of their mounting disillusion. “The Damned” has a tendency to meander, but in so doing, it strives toward something authentic.

Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, May 6, 2024. In Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard). Running time: 88 MIN.

• Production: (Italy-U.S.-Belgium) An Okta Film, Pulpa Film production with Rai Cinema, in coproduction with Michigan Films, VOO OBE Be tv, Shelter Prod, in association with Stregonia, Moonduckling Films, with the support of MiC – Direzione Generale Cinema e audiovisivo, Centre du cinéma et de l’audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Fondo Audiovisivo Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Taxshelter.Be and ING, Tax shelter du Gouvernement féderal de Belgique, Film Commission Torino Piemonte, Federal tax credit program of Canada (Cavco), Provincial tax credit program of Québec, in collaboration with Kaibou Production. (International sales: Les Films du Losange, Paris.) Producers: Paolo Benzi, Denise Ping Lee, Roberto Minervini, Paolo Del Brocco. Executive producers: Teresa Mannino, Jean-Alexandre Luciani, Annette Fausboll. Co-producers: Alice Lemaire, Sébastien Andres.
• Crew: Director, writer: Roberto Minervini. Camera: Carlos Alfonso Corral. Editor: Marie-Hélène Dozo. Music: Carlos Alfonso Corral.
• With: Jeremiah Knupp, René W. Solomon, Cuyler Ballenger, Noah Carlson, Judah Carlson, Tim Carlson, Bill Gehring.

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