Tom Cruise returns to cinema for a very different kind of movie. If you have seen any of the trailers for Digger, you would be excused for not understanding what it was about apart from Cruise in a fat suit and old-man makeup. A lot of mystery shrouds the plot and its intricate details, which I will do my best not to spoil here. It is safe to say that after a 20 minute introduction to some of the characters including Cruise’s Digger and some side characters like Riz Ahmed’s Doctor Ganesh you think you know what movie you are in for. Then the first twist happens and completely flips what you thought it was completely on its head. The way its done is slightly jarring and unfortunately the rest of the movie just never recovers from this.
After the first twist and the fourth wall has come down, the writing feels different, I can only assume that the three writers here deem themselves incredibly clever and funny, and to their credit there will be a cohort of cinema bros and snobs who think that this is one of the best films of the year, and then there is the rest of us who couldn’t wait for this complete mess to be over so we could try and figure out just exactly what we had seen.
It’s easy to blame Cruise, it is a massive swing for him, mainly being relegated to action hero movies for the last few decades, it seemed like a no brainer to take a massive swing at this point in his career and the mystery surrounding this film only made it more appealing. The problem with his character is the make up, the wig and fat suit are so blatant, there is never a point where you feel like you are seeing the character of Digger, it always looks like Tom Cruise in a fat suit with make up. We have seen Cruise do comedy before, and we know that he does have it in him, it just seems to fall flat here. Fortunately it’s not all bad, John Goodman plays the president, a delightfully deranged take on Trump complete with ridicilously long red tie, the trigger happy commander in chief is the highlight of the film everytime he is on screen. Ahmed is fantastic as the truth telling scientist and his relentless need to tell the truth and being paraded around by Digger and his crew is incredibly entertaining to watch. Sandra Huller plays Digger’s half-sister and we know she is a phenomenal actor who can deliver memorable performances, she does the best with what little material she gets here and is on screen for a grand total of ten minutes which was a little disappointing.
There’s an art to making a movie like this and director Alejandro G. Inarritu can’t do it justice. The pacing of the film is erratic at best and at 2 hour 10 minute run time, it did feel like it was a 4 hour film. For all of its faults, it’s not all bad though, the practical sets are beautifully hand crafted and the way they are intergrated with digital effects does make this feel like a Yorgos Lanthimos Poor Thing in its visual style. It did look spectacular at times with the theatrical like sets appearing larger than life. The costumes, wigs and make up does leave much to be desired, particularly on Cruise.
Digger feels like an experiment of a film, a stab in the dark with a true Hollywood star to try and make an idea come to life that is not well executed. Cruise is completely lost in this film and his almost flawless filmography is now stained with the stench of this project. This film is sure to be divisivie, there is an audience for this who will no doubt love this film and everything that it represents. For general audiences, this is going to be a tough watch, I would air on the side of caution and catch something else as Tom Cruise and co. have delivered the biggest fumble of the year.
