Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu And Alexander Dinelaris Jr. And Nicolas Giacobone And Sabine Berman And Jez Butterworth
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Digger: "If we can't control the course of nature, at least we can control the narrative."
We're heading into Academy Awards season and there's going to be some movies that will be hyped for the awards that aren't going to float my boat. This was a movie I had a feeling from the trailers wasn't going to be for me and upon watching it, I was correct. I didn't dig this one.
Tom Cruise has spent the last while trying to show up the younger generation as the definitive action man with mostly that being a success in all fairness. Of course, there was going to be a point where he would want to pivot back to a role that would prove he still had the range for the award circuit. I can see what he was attempting to do here.
He's an aging oil magnate named Digger Rock Rockwell that was colluding with the US President (John Goodman) so his company could extract oil in Alaska and Greenland. This resulted in an explosion and dislodged ice shelf toward Europe. Dr. Nirav Ganesh (Riz Ahmed) tried to warn of a devastating tidal waves across the North Sea but he was mostly dismissed.
There's some focus on the Presideng having rectal cancer as well as a play called Fossil Fools that tried to satirise the disaster of the film. There's a fun performance by Cruise, who also played Curtis Markson, the actor that played Digger in the play. This subplot also gave us another good scene stealing moments from Jesse Plemons as Digger's nephew, Kenny.
Throw in some ample support from the likes of Sandra Huller as Digger's half sister, Emma, Michael Stuhlbarg as Vice President Eddie and the film itself isn't lacking in terms of great acting. It's just the story that I found myself struggling to get into. Even Digger and his family's downfall just went on a bit before reaching it's inevitable conclusion.
- There was a lot of emphasis on that dying white cat for a a fair chunk of the first act in the movie. I liked the cat.
- Tom Cruise got an entire monologue for ten minutes that was filmed in a single take.
- Standout music: Melanie's Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma.
- Chronology: Set in America as well as the offshore platform Digger and his family were sent to.
Digger just didn't do it for me. I'll give Tom Cruise credit for his physical transformation and there's a few funny moments but it's not a film I'd be in a rush to ever see again. I found it to be a bit of a slog to be honest.
Rating: 6 out of 10
