Diggers

Diggers is a solidly written and performed dramedy that chronicles the daily grind of the lives of four Long Island clam diggers in the 1970s. Paul Rudd plays a dreary, distracted would-be photographer mulling around the neighborhood after his father dies and leaves him lacking motivation. Maura Tierney plays his self-discovering older sister, exploring a relationship with local lothario Jack (Ron Eldard). Best of all, though, is screenwriter Ken Marino playing a self-penned role as a volatile family man strapped for cash and coping poorly.

The film takes its local lingo and accents very seriously, suggesting its period setting with undisruptive subtlety but with the fullness of a novel. It doesn’t force the era down your throat, but there’s a clear sense of time and place, and of precisely what kind of men these are. Marino, a local of the time, has a great ear for rough authentic dialogue, and the kind of flawed, brutish affections of working class laborers. His character is passionate about his family and yet utterly obnoxious in his aggressions. He even nails the kind of stupid awkwardness of barroom brawls and interpersonal altercations. He works very hard to keep his film from feeling like a film, and seeming like life in motion.

It’s a somewhat underwhelming movie by its small nature, but its tender, human, slice of life dramatics are well executed and surprisingly funny as well. Each character gets a minor arc of evolution. Even though, none are truly riveting, they are each believable and interesting in small ways. This is a nostalgic indie talker that’s perfect for a certain audience, but in the grand scheme of modern film could very easily slip away into nothingness. Hopefully, it will find a way of reaching the kind of niche audience that can appreciate its charms.

Grade: B