"The Dig": review

Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) and Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes)

In his comedy show Dressed to Kill, Eddie Izzard does a segment about the difference between British and US films, both of which, he finds, commit their share of sins. His satire of British films is, I think, pretty on point. As Izzard describes it, British films are full of actors opening doors and stammering, "Oh, I... oh," while some other annoyed character grouses, "What is it, Sebastian? I'm arranging matches!" Sebastian eventually manages to say, "I think I'd better go" while his interlocutor continues to arrange said matches. I remember seeing "The Remains of the Day" years ago, and when Izzard talked about British films, that's the movie that came to mind for me—all buried emotions, repressed desires, and buttoned-down propriety. It's ironic that British actors, many of whom go through rigorous formal training, often find themselves in roles where they must play characters that are as stiff as a board.

There's a little of that repression in "The Dig," a 2021 film based on a 2007 novel by John Preston. The film is directed by Simon Stone and stars Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan. Fiennes plays autodidact excavator/archaeologist Basil Brown, who is summoned by rich widow Edith Pretty (Mulligan) to find out what might lie beneath some mounds on her property. Edith lost her husband some years back, and she has to take care of her son Robert (Archie Barnes). Edith is aware of Basil's reputation as a "difficult" man, and the first thing he tells Edith is that her offer of pay isn't sufficient. Edith, realizing she's about to lose Brown as a digger, ups her offer and retains him, providing him a temporary on-property residence as well as the help of some assistants. Edith's son Robert is hungry for knowledge, and he takes a liking to Basil, who can sense the boy is in need of a father figure. Edith herself starts to develop warm feelings for Basil, but she has several problems to deal with, including a damaged heart that threatens to kill her should she experience too much stress.

Eventually, members of the Ipswich and British Museums become interested in the dig as Basil begins to realize the enormity of what he finds: nothing less than an Anglo-Saxon ship, probably housing a king, has been buried on the property. As more people become interested in the dig, the scope of the movie expands, and several subplots begin to unfurl.

The sudden presence of new subplots starting about halfway through the movie is a bit jarring, at first, almost as if Basil Brown is no longer the star of his own story, but ultimately, this is because "The Dig" is about a historical find that proves to be much bigger than Basil Brown and the other museum boys. Through it all, though, it's the cordial relationship between Brown, Edith Pretty, and Edith's son Robert that anchors the movie and sustains it. One subplot deals with the question of Basil Brown's place in history: with the two museums swooping in to take the dig over (something Edith objects to since the dig is on her property, and her allegiance is to Basil), there is a real question as to whether Basil Brown will end up getting any credit for his (and, really, Edith's) discovery. Another subplot involves an archeologist couple, Stuart and Peggy Piggott (Ben Chaplin and Lily James), who turn out to be a fairly mismatched pair: Stuart is cold and distant to his wife, and Peggy yearns for more. Peggy eventually succumbs to the charms of Edith's cousin Rory (Johnny Flynn), who is on site initially as a helper for Basil, but who eventually becomes one of the dig's most prominent photographers, all before he gets called up to join the Royal Air Force on the eve of World War II. So, yes: World War II is the backdrop for all these events; the prospect of war means that whatever treasures are found at the burial site cannot be stored in a London museum because of the threat of bombing: they must instead be stored in the London Underground. Meanwhile, although Edith may be yearning, at least a little, for Basil, Basil is, as it turns out, happily married, and because Edith knows she's likely dying, she begins to think of Basil and his wife May (Monica Dolan) as possible surrogate parents for Robert, who will need someone to care for him when she's gone.

So the story of "The Dig" is a bit messy, but I suppose that's a reflection of life, where things don't always proceed in a smoothly linear manner. Even the rain, which bedevils the archaeological dig the entire time, is something of a metaphor for the way life throws you curve balls. The movie ends with title cards that tell us a bit about the disposition of the Anglo-Saxon treasures found on site at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, England. We learn a bit about Edith's fate, and whether Basil Brown was credited with unearthing the buried ship and its treasures. One thing I would have liked to know was what sort of relationship developed between young Robert and Basil, given how much the boy idolized the older man.

Much of the movie is edited in a way that feels deliberately choppy, with actors silently saying and doing one thing while voiceover dialogue from a different situation plays over the scene in question. This produces a disjointed effect that adds to the idea that life carries with it no guarantees: health is precarious, desires go unfulfilled, war makes a mess of our future plans, and you just never know what's going to happen. But Basil Brown himself seems to take a different perspective. In response to Edith's sadness about how life is brief, and how we simply die, decompose, and fade away, Basil says that his work has shown him that we do persist, we do go on even after we're gone, and that we are all participating in a great, continuous thing—call it life, call it history. We echo forward into the future, impacting lives in ways both great and small. Basil, at least, finds that reassuring.

Overall, I thought "The Dig" was a fine film—well acted, full of interesting ideas and themes, and reflective of the messiness of life itself. Ralph Fiennes does his usual excellent job, and Carey Mulligan (playing a woman who, in real life, was actually in her fifties when she met Basil) somehow pulls off the role of a frail mother who finds herself under a lot of pressure. Mulligan was, if anything, a revelation to me: I hadn't watched her perform in years, and she's aged quite gracefully. Last I saw her, I think, was in "An Education," which I didn't like very much, and I've written mean things about the actress in the past. Well, however Mulligan might be in real life, she does an amazing job in "The Dig." Young Archie Barnes, in the role of Edith's son Robert, also plays his part well without falling into the child-actor's trap of being insufferably annoying. The movie's cinematography also deserves a mention, here: it's a gorgeous evocation of 1940s England, and it made me wistful for a time and place I've never personally experienced. If you find yourself in the mood for a quiet movie that is deep without hitting you over the head with its depth, I think you might enjoy "The Dig."