The Dig Movie Review

The Dig (2021)

Watch The Dig on Netflix / Buy the novel (paid link)
Written by: Moira Buffini (screenplay), John Preston (novel)
Directed by: Simon Stone
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
An archaeologist embarks on the historically important excavation of Sutton Hoo in 1938.

Verdict
The movie is quite underwhelming. I didn't have any feelings about the plot or characters. There isn't one main character, and that would have helped tie the story together. This relays facts, but lacks the emotion for a connection that would make it an engaging story. It's not that this is bad. I didn't like or dislike it. I just didn't care.
Skip it.

Review
I wondered what the main plot was going to be from the beginning. Is this about widow Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) struggling to find a competent archaeologist to excavate her land? Is it her triumph over the museums that rejected the idea the dig would yield anything useful? Is this instead about Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) getting credit, a self taught excavator that lacks the degree but is just as capable as the museum archaeologists?

Ralph Fiennes plays Basil Brown.

This is about all of those things to a degree. This is a collection of story fragments. In addition this adds a young female archaeologist with an older, uninterested husband as she tries to prove her value in a man's world. Any one of these characters could be the main story, This doesn't hit any of the plot points I expected, but none of the character arcs felt complete either.
This could go the very typical triumph route with Basil and Edith defying the museums and even falling for each other. I'm glad it didn't go that route, but what we get is incomplete. A "where are they now epilogue" doesn't cut it.

Carey Mulligan and Lily James play Edith and Peggy.

The most interesting part was a connection between archaeology and space travel, but that's left on the vine to wither. This doesn't employ any typical arcs, but it also doesn't really go anywhere. It's a collection of fragments that never come together. The landscapes look great but the individual stories never merge in a meaningful way.