Director: Joe Swanberg
Written by: Jake Johnson and Joe Swanberg
Starring: Jake Johnson, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Orlando Bloom
Released: 21 August 2015 Country: USA Runtime: 85 min Rated: R
Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies) has an amazing ability to take the simple, normal, everyday human interactions and weave them into a good story. He does this again in Digging for Fire, a great story about a bone, a gun, and relationships.
The story centers on a husband, Tim (Jake Johnson), and wife, Lee (Rosemarie DeWitt) who are housesitting for a wealthy friend. When Tim does some gardening and discovers a buried gun and bone, he wants to keep exploring but Lee tells him to forget it. But when she takes her son to visit her parents for the weekend, Tim can’t help but have some friends over to continue exploring the garden. And so begins a crazy weekend, filled with adventures for Tim as well as Lee, who decides to have a night out in town.
The acting in this film is quite good and felt natural, from Johnson (New Girl) and DeWitt (Cinderella Man) all the way down to Jenny Slate, who has a quick appearance as a mesmerized star gazer.The actors tell this story so well, you don’t feel like there is any acting happening. It actually feels as if you are watching something that is actually happening. Johnson, in particular, brings out a spectacular performances, one of the best of his career. He settles right into the role of a guy just wanting to have fun with his buddies and do some exploring.
The technical aspects of this are not overly noteworthy. The sets are typical and don’t stand out and the cinematography wasn’t overly dramatic or memorable. The score, by Dan Romer (Beasts of the Southern Wild), works well with this film and brings out the emotions in each scene but was not as memorable or as good as some of his other works, like Beasts of the Southern Wild.
If you are looking for a good, easy to watch movie, I would recommend this film . Overall grade:
And Then I Woke Up 