In any case, “The Dig” is not a work of rigorous history, even if rigorous history is one thread of its many themes. Mulligan was no doubt cast for the same reason she accepted her role in last year’s “Promising Young Woman”: She’s among the finest actors working, and it’s a pleasure to watch her explore her range with varied and interesting parts. “The Dig” may have been inspired by a true story, but the age discrepancies do not necessarily matter to Simon or screenwriter Moira Buffini’s approach. Working together, this terminally ill, not-especially-old widow and her loyal servant establish a legacy of their own. Together, the pair explore a dynamic that is not at all romantic - though the possibility flares at one point - but instead treat audiences to an understated show of mutual respect that transcends education and class. Mulligan conveys the inner strength in a slowly dying character, while Fiennes is surly behind a thick Suffolk accent.
The characters can feel the looming threat of war, and they surely remember the cost of the previous one, and yet they are humbled by the history they’ve been tasked with uncovering: a remarkably intact 7th-century Anglo-Saxon ship.Īt the center of this unhurried yet engaging project are two meticulously calibrated performances from Carey Mulligan (playing the 56-year-old Pretty) and Ralph Fiennes as amateur archaeologist Basil Brown (who was slightly younger, 51, at the time). What she found was perhaps the most significant archaeological discovery on English soil and the subject of “ The Dig,” a period piece that Australian director Simon Stone has approached in Merchant Ivory mode.Īn homage to such films as “Howards End,” this gentle and almost painfully polite British drama takes place in 1939 on the cusp of World War II, and it rather poetically places the turbulence of the then-present conflict within the perspective of the millennia of human experience that came before. For years, there had been theories about what might lie beneath - buried treasure, Roman graves or even a Viking ship - but it was not until after Pretty’s husband died that the widow finally followed up on that feeling of hers and resolved to excavate these small human-made hills. Edith Pretty and her husband bought a house at Sutton Hoo, the estate of which contained several large mounds of earth.
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