Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

The Dig 

This film is beautifully shot and masterfully acted. The film tells the story of Basil Brown and his findings of a historic ship found on the grounds of a wealthy family. This film showcases brilliant performances from Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan and a narrative that will move you emotionally maybe to tears at points and also will keep you engaged by the riveting story at hand. 

Firstly, The tone and execution of the story at hand was incredibly well done. The film tackles themes of demeaning from remembering ones who lived before you and to preserve history. The film dose not cover Basil Brown’s whole life they focus on this one point at his life instead which works so much better than if they were to do a full on biopic of him. It was able to show Basil as a whole person over the course of a few months and his unique thought process he would use for his line of work. As what is so great about what makes the narrative so compelling is that yes we learn about Basil Brown but its purely focused on just this dig he has been hired for and the ups and downs that came with this historic dig. I love that as we see from the first time he starts digging up the property to the final day he had at the site and so much happens that you learn either about Basil or the woman Miss Pretty it’s so layered in character depth and incredibly rich emotion. You’re either engaged in the shocking true story at hand many people did not know about or your engaged into the characters and the many twists and turns that go on with them. I was never bored or wishing the film to finish sooner it was greatly paced. A great narrative that knows when to pull back and never overstays its welcome in terms of runtime.

Secondly, The performances are spectacular! The performance given by Ralph Fiennes is incredible giving a very emotionally restrained but still effective and powerful performance. Now for Carey Mulligan she’s great in the film giving also a strong performance my only issue is I felt her character arc wasn’t fully realized. Now as an example Lily James is in this film and gives a tremendous performance that’s great and she had an entire arc about the disconnect she had with her husband that’s touched on through the film. She’s got depth and great emotional beats through the course of the film that kept you engaged with her character. That’s what Mulligan’s character lacked is the emotional connection now that’s not her fault that’s the screenwriters because they easily could of fleshed her out a lot more compared to what we did get. As the mother gets sick early into the film and it’s touched on she’s incredibly unwell but that’s really it she’s not given much to do with her character except walk around looking sick now with what Mulligan had to work with she did a tremendous Job despite the poorly structured character arc she had. She does her best to shine despite that and she does I just wish she had more to do as she’s great in the film giving a emotionally charged performance it’s just that it could have used more in terms of character. Despite that flaw the performances are still very strong with Mulligan and Fiennes giving top notch work and a surprisingly scene stealing performance by Lily James. 

Lastly, The Dig is a film that will have you learning about something quite historic that many people will not know happened. As it keeps you fully engaged by the entertaining true story at hand that has so many twists and turns on top of knockout performances by Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan and Lily James. This film is a gem and I hope it doesn’t get overlooked it’s a splendid film I recommend everyone go check out. 

The story centres around Basil Brown who is hired by a wealthy family to see if their is treasure on her property and what he finds is better then anything he could of dreamed 

Rated PG - 13 : some language and scenes of peril 

Ralph Fiennes : Fiennes is such an underrated actor! This man has delivered some of cinemas greatest onscreen performances yet I still think he’s not as recognized as he should be. Here he gives another outstanding performance as the real life person Basil Brown. He brings this emotional restraint trait to his portrayal of Basil. As Ralph Fiennes knows that he can be emotionally expressive and loud when he wants to be as we’ve seen it. So to see him pull back emotionally when he could of gone big and loud was a great choice he made. As we learn so much about. Basil by just him holding back as he is telling us that he was a man that never let his emotions get the best of him and Fiennes shows that beautifully onscreen. As theirs many times you see him incredibly upset or angry but dose not say a word and decides to bite his tongue and deal with things despite it not going the way he hoped at times. He can show the sheer anger in his eyes which is more powerful for what he was going for in terms of the character as that was more effective than if he was to go big and loud with emotion. Even if he’s being polite to someone he hates he will pack a punch of anger in that nice comment instead of giving anger in a way that would of made him look unprofessional at the workplace. It’s very emotionally captivating to watch as Ralph also has this tenderness in his eyes that makes him expose his heart without saying a word or even when he does speak you can feel the weight of the emotion by the way he says a word and it’s powerful. He plays a man who never let emotion drive his thought process at work but still had so many raw feelings under the surface he would address in other ways to make his point felt by those around him. It’s a very subtle and tender performance given by Ralph Fiennes and it’s truly outstanding as he chews up every scene he’s in. Overall Fiennes delivers a layered Performance of a man that was always professional and passionate about his work and had a emotional stork behind his eyes and words that’s beautifully presented by Ralph Fiennes. 

Simon Stone : Simon gives exceptional direction on this incredibly engaging true story!  He brought this really uneven feeling to the frame that I thought was unique. The camera was never mounted for probably 50 percent of the film. As the camera was either moving or in this state or uneven and it caught my attention. It made you the viewer feel as if your walking behind them and experiencing it first hand I got to say I loved that approach and it can’t go unnoticed. He didn’t cover this mans whole life but dedicated the film to this mans incredible find that he never got credit for finding and we see the ups and downs of how the dig went. He never relied on big over arching emotion to drive the narrative he drew you in my the fascinating story at hand topped with the incredible performances from its cast. Now what also stood out to me was he didn’t just focus on Basil he showed the story of everyone involved as well as the owner of the house. So he got you invested yes in the main character but all the supporting characters as well showing how things went for them too giving a great balance of depth for everyone involved in the finding of this historic finding. He showed the emotional stress of the dig but also the happy side to it too and shows the sheer complication that went into getting this massive artifact out of the ground in such an entertaining way you can’t look away from. 

Simon stone gives truly great direction bringing a story many May not know to life through a visually striking story told extremely well by Simon.