What’s It About

Tom Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a brazen billionaire industrialist whose reckless drilling operation in Greenland causes an immense iceberg to break off and threaten the world. As the environmental catastrophe unfolds, Digger embarks on a frantic, chaotic mission to spin the narrative and prove he is humanity’s savior rather than the cause of its destruction.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

Give Alejandro G. Iñárritu this much: the man does not do small. The director behind “Birdman” and “The Revenant” linked up with Tom Cruise, who also produced, and together they built what might be the priciest art-house movie ever made. Warner Bros. puts the cost around $125 to $135 million, but industry reports say the real number may have climbed past $180 million. Either way, that’s a whole lot of money for a movie this loud, this proud, and this much of a mess. Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an oil billionaire who wants every last drop of black gold out of the ground and doesn’t care what that costs the planet. His company’s drilling in Greenland cracks off an ice shelf the size of Philadelphia, and now that giant slab is drifting toward Europe, dragging tidal waves and hundreds of thousands of lives along with it. Impact is three days away. The rest of the movie is Digger trying to talk, spin, and shout his way out of the disaster he made. Five people share the writing credit: Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, and Sabina Berman on the screenplay, plus Jez Butterworth on the story. When that many cooks crowd one kitchen, the food usually comes out confused. Here, it comes out burnt. So, we gotta talk about Cruise hiding under this old guy makeup. There’s this bald cap, white hair all over him, and a suit that makes his tummy all big. He sounds like he has a thick Texan accent, wearing cheap cowboy outfits and screaming on his Bluetooth throughout the movie. He puts so much effort in his role, like a guy who hasn’t eaten for three days and just got his steak. No one can say it was a half-hearted effort, but that’s not enough. Digger is like Les Grossman from “Tropic Thunder,” Ross Perot, and some cheap cartoon character. Iñárritu shoots almost everything from way down low, so every character looks puffed up, goofy, and a little dangerous. John Goodman squeezes the most out of that trick as President Compson, stretching his face into long, bug-eyed stares that look like Foghorn Leghorn crossed with Droopy Dog. Compson and Digger go way back, trading favors for decades until both of them reached the top of a very dirty ladder. The president is also dying of what he politely calls “ass cancer,” and as the world turns on America, he starts believing he’s a prophet sent either to save everybody or wipe everybody out. In his head, those two jobs sit real close together. So the president’s whole cabinet rolls up to Digger’s mansion, figures out there’s nothing they can do to stop the ice, and starts building a digital firewall to erase any proof they caused it. “The people know the facts. The story is yet to be told,” Digger says. That’s the sharpest line in the film, and it shows up early. Nothing after it cuts as deep. The cover-up doesn’t hold. Everything builds toward a long, wild scene where Digger stands before Europe’s leaders in a giant assembly hall, and every single one of them wants his head. The scientist Ganesh (Riz Ahmed) already went up there and told the truth: they knew the methane was headed for a breaking point. Ahmed plays the only person in this movie with a working conscience, and the film barely gives him room to breathe. Real talk, I see this pattern too often. The character holding the truth gets the least space to hold it. After that, Digger takes the mic. The camera of Emmanuel Lubezki glides through the hall as if it is one continuous shot while Cruise screams at the top of his voice at the hypocritical politicians, who, while enjoying the luxury that oil brings, do not think about the price tag. It’s like Colonel Jessep in “A Few Good Men” after having drunk an entire bottle of whiskey and lied his whole life. Is this lame? Quite a bit. Is it funny to observe? For about ten minutes. This is that section in the movie when it finally starts going places. Even though you feel it is heading right to the sun. And that should have been the ending. Instead, we get another thirty minutes, and that’s where the movie’s big trick fully takes over. There’s a performance-inside-a-performance game running through this whole film, and I won’t spoil it. I’ll just say it’s clever and a mistake at the same time. By the end, it knocks the story sideways, and the movie just sits there admiring how smart it thinks it is. The supporting cast is stacked and mostly wasted. Michael Stuhlbarg plays a spineless vice president. Sandra Hüller plays Emma, Digger’s half-sister, who runs an environmental branch of the business that exists mostly for good press. Jesse Plemons drifts around as a mystery man named Kenny. Robert John Burke plays a general who loves God and guns, in that order. Emma D’Arcy plays a worn-down assistant, and Burn Gorman pops up too. Everybody matches Cruise and Goodman’s big, shouty energy, and after a while it all blends into one long noise. Hüller is one of the best actors working today, and this movie hands her almost nothing to do. As satire, “Digger” isn’t a scalpel. It’s a sledgehammer. B-2 bombers drop payloads with “SUCK IT NATURE” painted on the side. Digger’s ancient cat is so clearly a puppet that it turns into its own joke. In one cabinet meeting, somebody says something nasty and the president scolds, “Please, there are women present.” Everybody looks around, realizes there are zero women in the room, and cracks up. That’s the level we’re working with. The craft is real, and I won’t pretend otherwise. Lubezki paints this world in sickly greens, browns, chalky whites, and grays, so everything feels tired and used up. The production design pops. The movie looks incredible. But just looking awesome ain’t gonna help ya. “Digger” speaks of capitalism and climate change while hiding in the chaos of its cartoons. It’s too lightweight to challenge anyone and too loud to be funny. The experience of “Digger” felt like having a long dinner with a self-obsessed person. Iñárritu’s “Bardo” is strange too, but it at least has some life in it. “Digger” attacked the fools and has become one. Not just missed the point, but got itself into a hole and can now only enjoy staying inside.

OUR RATING – AN UNDUG 2