J.P. Devine Movie Review: ‘The Dig’
Perfect cast uncovers haunting passage to the past, writes Devine.
Share
Director Simon Stone’s “The Dig” floats in and around Sutton Hoo in 1939, a patch of farmland near Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, surrounded by ancient woods, and scattered with people, each with their plots of earth and who spend their days tending to them.
The largest piece of land holds the rambling estate of Mrs. Edith Pretty, (Carey Mulligan “The Great Gatsby”) the widow of a British Army officer, and possessor of a ring of strange earthen mounds.
MOVIE INFO
Length: 112 minutes
Wasn t there an actor of the correct age? Netflix is slammed for casting Carey Mulligan, 35, as a 56-year-old in The Dig – as fans claim ‘women over 40 are invisible’ to movie makers
The Dig is based on John Preston s 2007 novel about the unearthing of the Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in 1939
Screen star Carey, 35, plays 56-year-old landowner Edith Pretty - a role originally intended for Nicole Kidman, 53 - in the movie
Viewers took to Twitter to question the network s decision, with one claiming: women over 40 are still invisible in the culture
Director Simon Stone has previously defended the thespian s portrayal of Edith, who passed away aged 59 after suffering a stroke in 1942
There is a gentle, old-world romance about the Netflix film The Dig, directed by Simon Stone, off a screenplay by Moira Buffini. Long tracking shots, wistful frames of the English countryside and some unforgettable visual compositions abound in this film that glides, but never really soars. Then again, it leaves you with the sense that soaring was perhaps never its intention in the first place.
The film is based on John Preston’s 2007 novel of the same name (which itself is a literary reimagination of the real-life archaeological discoveries at Sutton Hoo in England, just before World War II.) Carey Mulligan plays Edith Pretty, a widowed single mother with a large estate, who hires Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to excavate a set of mounds on her property – they give Edith a ‘feeling’ that there’s something of significance underneath.