Digger Movie Review: Tom Cruise Sheds His Hero Image in Alejandro G Iñárritu’s Complex Climate Satire
Oscar-winning director Alejandro G Iñárritu’s latest film, Digger, strips Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise of all frills and presents him in one of his most experimental roles to date. In recent years, audiences have seen Cruise pull off death-defying stunts in action thrillers. The actor, who in countless films seemed to refuse to age and gave performers half his age a complex with his risky stunts, ages here. In Digger, he plays a man who is aware of his own misdeeds and even wants to come clean.
Buried under heavy prosthetics, Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon, in Iñárritu’s climate satire, which examines power, politics and the way they shape society at large. While it highlights some pertinent issues, the satire is also indulgent in its storytelling, making Digger a very complex film that is not easy viewing for regular moviegoers.
What is the plot of Digger?
Wealthy oil tycoon Digger Rockwell finds himself at the centre of a global climate crisis after one of his oil rigs explodes in Alaska. The fallout is tsunami-level and could affect all of Europe. Digger is initially optimistic about the situation and unwilling to accept blame, even though many of his employees had warned him of such a day. He eventually realises he must face the consequences and wants to come clean.
However, the US President (John Goodman) and his advisors remain myopic about the catastrophe, even as Dr Ganesh, Digger’s chief scientist, keeps pushing facts about the crisis. The President is more concerned about his own future. Digger’s half-sister Emma (Sandra Huller), who runs the greener side of the family business, is worried about her image, and Digger must now take the lead in handling the global crisis.
The narrative focuses not only on the climate crisis but also on American politics, family dynamics and art, as the plot is set within a play, with each actor playing dual characters.
What works and what does not
Digger is not for everyone. It demands attention, makes you think and pushes you to dig deeper. A regular cinemagoer used to commercial thrillers and linear storytelling may find the narrative extremely complex.
The filmmaker goes all out in taking jibes at the powerful and the rich, who often hold a myopic view when dealing with global crises. In an early scene, the US Army head sizes up Dr Ganesh and asks where he is originally from, pompous about his own white skin and condescending toward the brown man who is easily the most intelligent person in the room. Moments later, a group of white men plot vague plans to make America look good and emerge as the saviour amid the catastrophe, without realising they are the ones who created the crisis in the first place.
Iñárritu’s vision is indulgent, and viewers have to go with the flow as he builds a massive canvas. It is a story within a story: a play about Digger and the global climate crisis, in which Cruise plays an actor retelling a similar incident from the past that had a real effect on him and his family. With a non-linear narrative and metaphors galore, it is tough to keep up. The makers also repeat a lot of the plot points, making the story repetitive.
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Even so, it is Tom Cruise who makes the film worth your time. Audiences are used to seeing Cruise play a larger-than-life national hero saving the world, so his turn as a flawed oil tycoon takes time to settle in. Once it does, Cruise takes viewers on a very interesting ride. With a prosthetic belly and a thick Southern accent, he charms and engages the audience.
Riz Ahmed, as Dr Ganesh, complements Cruise well on screen. While Digger is eccentric, Ganesh grounds him every so often. John Goodman, similarly, plays the megalomaniac President well.
Verdict
While satirising the climate crisis and the politics behind it, the film also touches upon corporate greed, the honesty of art and actors, white supremacy and more. The result is a very complex film likely to draw sharply divided opinions from audiences.
Digger may not be fully cohesive, but it still offers a powerful commentary on a world where the rich and powerful often sideline pertinent environmental issues that urgently need attention. With Digger, Iñárritu holds up a mirror to the world, urging everyone to sit up and take note of the environment around us. However, the message is delivered through a very convoluted story.