Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes search for treasure and find the meaning of life in the film “The Dig.”

Adapting an English novel is a rewarding endeavor. But on the other hand, making a film worthy of the source material is no easy task. Young director Simon Stone decided to try his hand at this with the film “The Dig”, based on real events and the work of John Preston.

Is there a future without the past?

On the eve of World War II, a widow named Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) invites archaeologist Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to search for gold in the Suffolk burial mounds on her property. Instead of the expected jewels, the ancient graves yield a discovery that could play a huge role in the study of world history.

The film, released on the Netflix service, immerses the viewer in the stories of two complex characters with complicated fates, in a leisurely manner and with mesmerizing shots of typically English landscapes.

She is a single mother raising a child, with thoughts of the future. He is a talented archaeologist, but insufficiently qualified by the standards of his community, only able to dig in the ground and search for traces of the past. And no, this is not a love story between representatives of different social classes. It is a more ephemeral union that helps each character better understand themselves and their desires, and to affirm their understanding of the meaning of life.

In the film “The Dig,” you can find many subplots and various meanings. There are reflections on the fact that the future is impossible without knowledge of the past, and there is a collision of life and death (not for nothing does the approach of war loom over the story, and the emergence of the brightest of feelings serves as a parallel). And all this multi-layeredness enchants and cleverly hides the story’s shortcomings, such as the lack of any tension or unpredictability.

Beauty in everything

Seriously. “The Dig” is a very beautiful film. It is beautifully shot (earthy tones dominate, fitting the theme of history), beautifully acted (Mulligan deserves a Golden Globe nomination for this role more than for “Promising Young Woman,” and Ralph Fiennes has played one of his best roles in years), and beautifully framed by music. There is not a drop of vulgarity in it, and even the love story between the characters of Lily James and Johnny Flynn, which seemed to come out of nowhere and confused many, does not spoil the impression, because if you set aside prejudices, it is a beautiful and pure love story. If this film can be described in one word, that word would be “beauty.”

Is the film “The Dig” worth watching?

Perhaps no one would have seen this film if it hadn’t featured Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes. Perhaps it would have been a completely different film if other actors had played the roles. But they are here, and they have turned “The Dig” into something more than what this modest, albeit very beautiful, English drama about the excavation of an ancient ship actually is.

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