FILM REVIEW: DIGGING FOR FIRE

Lee (Rosemarie Dewitt) in Digging for Fire.

 

Burning out

By John Esther

Lee (Rosemarie Dewitt), her husband, Tim (co-writer Jake Johnson), and their 3-year-old son, Jude (Jude Swanberg), have just arrived at a swank Hollywood Hills home, courtesy of one of Lee's clients.

While walking the grounds, Tim discovers a bone and a gun halfway buried in the dirt. He calls the cops, but the operator "with an attitude" says there is nothing they can do without more "evidence" (a suspicious response, but okay). Tim wants to excavate the grounds further to find proof of misdeeds. Lee thinks it is a bad idea. Tim concedes to Lee.

Other than the upgrade of their surroundings, life does not appear to change for the couple. She continues her private yoga classes while Tim -- a public teacher who, I  guess, is on summer vacation, futzes around the place. But no digging. Together they discuss their relationship, child rearing -- particularly Jude's education (private versus public schooling), and Tim's assignment to do their income taxes.

Hardly a vacation, it is not long before the two decide a break from one another would be a good thing. Lee and Jude head off to the extraordinary house of her mother (Judith Light) and stepfather (Sam Elliott) for the weekend. Lee's parents are loaded and they share Lee's upper-class demand for Jude's private school education. It would appear that Jude needs the best preschool available or his life is doomed.

Meanwhile, back at the Hollywood Hills pad, Tim has invited a bunch of his friends over to drink beer, play games, go swimming, bond and, yes, uh oh, do some digging. For some reason, most of the men, especially Tim's friend, Ray (Sam Rockwell), consider digging and drinking beer a fun time. They also listen to crappy, pretentious music. (Well, at least the film is playing it).

As the weekend proceeds, Digging for Fire moves back and forth between Lee and Tim. She was hoping to spend time with her sister (Melanie Lynskey), who also lives a life of luxury like their mother -- even if it appears to be an unhappy one -- but those plans fail to materialize. Tim spends the day with Max (Brie Larson), a younger woman who likes to party.

Throughout the entire time, Tim and Lee have conversations with everyone they know or meet about what having a relationship is about: expectations, sacrifices, disappointments, and goals.

Thanks to the actors -- which also include Steve Berg, Orlando Bloom, Anna Kendrick (whose character is poorly written), Chris Messina (who goes full frontal nude), Ron Livingston and Jenny Slate -- a few of the discussions about relationships are the best thing going for Digging for Fire.

Co-written by director Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies; Happy Christmas), Digging for Fire depicts a privileged strata of Los Angeles. The concerns of these people is hedonistic and self-reflective. Even parenting is a matter of self-pride for Lee and Tim. Are these the apolitical hipsters I have been hearing about, lately?

Discussions on topics like economic disparity, climate change, homegrown terrorism/mass gun shootings, overpopulation, cops killing unarmed African Americans, mass migration, the California drought, the destabilization of Western Asia, etc., are absent. (To be fair, there is a lot of mumbling in this movie, so maybe I just missed out on any important non-self absorbed issues the characters in the film may have addressed under her or his breath.)

The film uses very few changes of scenery. Everywhere we look, from the housing to the restaurants, is nice in this part of Los Angeles. Of course, it is the part of Los Angeles most Los Angelinos cannot afford. Even the ocean scene looks like it takes place on private property. Whatever happens beyond east of California's Interstate 110 Freeway and south of Santa Monica Blvd. does not seem to matter.  

It seems too cozy to really care what, if anything, these characters figure out by film's end. If the filmmakers are aware of this myopic milieu, it meets it at a superficial level. The yoga teacher seeking harmony buys a jacket made out of violence, steals from her mom, and eats dead flesh is not portrayed with an ounce of irony. The scene where Tim may have gone too far with the excavating -- plus, he seems to know nothing about protocol around a potential crime scene -- is painfully obvious. A ring and and a dead hand. Oh, I get it. And then there is the closing scene in this "indie" film, which is as reassuring as any narrative found in a mainstream movie.

It is not important that a film contain likable characters -- far from it. But when the filmmakers behind the camera seem to like those characters, or be too forgiving for their faults, then you get something like Digging for Fire.