Diggers (2007)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Feature: C

 

 

Katherine Dieckmann’s Diggers (2007) wants to be an honest tale about life in Long Island, New York as the business of gathering clams and other valuable sea life (and food) goes into decline as the natural resource dries up.  The Ken Marino script (he acts in it) also wants to be an honest slice of the mid 1970s, but it tries too hard, the project wallows in a certain self-congratulatory sense and the gender difference between writer and director turn into a setback where the film has coherence problems.

 

Both have different ideas about shattered masculinity, so the final results are ambiguous instead of as specific as they need to be to tell this tale properly.  Paul Rudd, Ron Eldard and Maura Tierney are among the more recognizable names, so this was ambitious.  However, this never adds up to the result it could have despite its ambitions thanks to playing it too safe and simply not thinking through every aspect of the final cut.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is problematic throughout.  It is soft, dark scenes can be too dark, detail is an issue, depth is a problem and you get shimmering throughout.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix has very limited surrounds and dialogue is the highlight, which is usually recorded well.  Extras include deleted scenes/outtakes with optional audio commentary by feature length participant Dieckmann and actor/writer Marino, Higher Definition HDNet installment about the feature and a documentary called Baymen.

 

Baymen is very impressive and shows the rise and fall of this way of life far more than Diggers ever manages to come close to.  It is actually the #1 reason to get this disc and embarrasses most of the rest of the content.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo