I am not the biggest fan of director Alejandro Iñárritu. After his great debut, Amores Perros, his next two films, 21 Grams and Babel, though pretty good, felt like re-treads. His most high profile movies since then have been the wildly overrated The Revenant and the plain awful Birdman. Most critics have liked his work more than me, but they have received Digger with hostility. On top of that, after its opening weekend in America, a box office return of $8 million, for something that had a production cost of $180 million, it is on course to be one of the biggest flops in cinema history.
That is despite Tom Cruise taking the title role of oil baron Digger Rockwell, who is the world’s most powerful man. His greed causes him to ignore safety warnings about his drilling in Greenland, unleashing an environmental catastrophe. Cruise is actually very good, and as much as I enjoy the Mission: Impossible movies, for example, it is pleasing to see him flex his acting muscles in what turns out is a dual role. He is also surrounded by an outstanding cast that includes Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Jesse Plemons and Michael Stuhlbarg. Riz Ahmed is particularly good as Digger’s head of environmental safety as are Emma D’Arcy as his assistant and particularly Sophie Wilde in a role that I will not specify as it would be a spoiler.
So, why does Digger only work intermittently? The problems lie in the screenplay cobbled together by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Nicolás Giacobone and Sabina Berman. Whilst it is hard to fault its point of view, the satire is frequently heavy handed with the same points hammered home time and time again. Additionally Iñárritu’s mannered direction coupled with the fussy set design reminded me of Wes Anderson, which is never a good thing.
But despite the issues, it is broadly entertaining, and although I initially had misgivings, there is a twist about half an hour in that ends up working very well. The subplot that twist created kept me interested enough, though it does run out of steam towards the end.
Rating: 6 out of 10