The Dig (2021) was directed by Simon Stone. It stars Carey Mulligan as Edith Pretty. Mrs. Pretty is a widow who lives on a large estate. She is convinced that there's something of archeological significance on her property. She employ Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to excavate one of the burial mounds. Brown is a skilled and experienced excavator, but he has no formal academic training. The result of his efforts can now be seen in the British Museum.
This could have been a great movie, if director Stone had just worked with what actually happened. Naturally, staff of the local museum wanted to direct the excavation, as did staff of the British museum. There was an inquest to decide the ownership of the find. World War II was (literally) about to begin. A perfect 90-minute movie. However, it ended up being a less-than-perfect 105 minute movie.
That's because director Stone brings in a (fictitious) cousin of Mrs. Pretty and a beautiful young female archeologist married to a stodgy , unromantic male archeologist. (Guess where that goes?) The inquest--an absolutely essential scene about who owns the find--is botched. You have to work backwards to figure out what happened. Worst of all, you never see the dramatic results of the excavation. You can see them in the British Museum, or online, or on a postcard. However, you don't see them in the movie. (Maybe the British Museum didn't like the movie, and refused to give permission.)
All in all, what could have been an excellent movie turned out to be pretty good movie. It's worth seeing as long as you don't expect great things. It works well on the small screen. The Dig has a pretty good rating of 7.3. I agreed, and rated it 7.
