The Dig
Netflix | Release Date: January 15, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The Film StageJared MobarakJan 28, 2021
With superb performances (Fiennes, Mulligan, James, and Flynn shine), gorgeous cinematography, lyrical editing, and a complementary score, the film proves a melancholic wonder that isn’t easily forgotten. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJan 30, 2021
Death is intercut with passion, as tragedy and glory tangle onscreen. It’s as if the dig itself radiates out a new understanding of existence, revealing both the broad arc of history and the curlicues of love, loyalty, and loss that abound within it. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin CrustJan 29, 2021
Sometimes you just don’t want a movie to end. The characters are so vivid and multidimensional, the milieu so inviting, the circumstances so compelling, you don’t want to let go. The Dig, starring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes, is such a movie. Read full review
90
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganJan 13, 2021
Australian director Simon Stone’s (The Daughter) film delivers strong performances – from Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan in particular – and top-level craft, but with an undercurrent of real emotion which sensitively conveys the fragility of lives and time. To use another of those abused words, it’s captivating. Read full review
88
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJan 14, 2021
Gradually, and with the methodical patience of someone unearthing buried treasure with a tiny brush, The Dig reveals itself to be a story of love and estrangement, of things lost and longed for, of life and death — of what lasts and what doesn’t. Read full review
88
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJan 13, 2021
In some ways “The Dig” feels like its own artifact too, like a lost Anthony Minghella film made 30 years ago and buried until now. Read full review
87
Paste MagazineAparita BhandariJan 21, 2021
Although it all may veer towards a cliched representation of British-ness, Fiennes and Mulligan’s leading turns as Brown and Pretty are charming. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekJan 29, 2021
The Dig—set in Suffolk, England, in 1939 and based on a true story of buried treasure—is a restorative escape, a smart, gentle picture whose transportive qualities should not be underestimated. It’s the cabin-fever-relief movie of this bleak midwinter. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJan 29, 2021
This charming, beautifully made drama gets about halfway (maybe a little more, maybe 60 or 70 per cent) towards confirmation as a classic of English reserve before a stunningly uninteresting subplot concerning less charismatic characters arrives to deaden the closing scenes. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJan 29, 2021
I’m glad it got made—not a sure thing at all in a relentlessly commercial market—and made with such intelligence and respect for the factual details of the discovery by people who obviously loved what they were doing; glad it’s available to a wide audience on Netflix; and glad to have gained from it a heightened, and lengthened, sense of human history that the filmmakers convey in a style that’s the antithesis of grandiose. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 14, 2021
The shape of its story is ultimately conventional, and the way in which it’s told can sometimes feel familiar – like a Sunday evening drama smuggling in big ideas. But the line it draws between the earthy and the ethereal stays with you: it’s a well-timed double dose of consolation and escape. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJan 29, 2021
There are moments of emotion and triumph, especially during the sequences of discovery, but the mood overall is understated, quiet, thoughtful. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 29, 2021
This is still a rich and worthy journey, comfort food that’s also food for thought. It invites us to consider timelines longer than a day, a year, a war, and a life, and to tread carefully on the kings and commoners who might lie beneath our feet. Read full review
75
IndieWireSteve GreeneJan 29, 2021
The Dig resists the the kind of obvious triumph that would overtake a lesser film. Whether it’s a mere whiff of romance, the memory of a loved one passed on, or the encroaching consequence of a nation readying for conflict, there’s a bittersweetness to “The Dig” that lingers just as much as the facts of the story. Read full review
75
Original-CinKaren GordonJan 28, 2021
A stately 20th Century period piece in the style of the best British dramas, The Dig is just what the anglophiles ordered. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 28, 2021
For a time, The Dig is a quiet little gem of a drama with only a few characters, but after Basil uncovers what appears to be an intact, seventh century Anglo-Saxon ship with far-ranging historical and cultural implications, Sutton Hoo gets quite crowded with new characters and a myriad of subplots, most examining the classism and sexism of the era. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJan 28, 2021
In the larger sense of whatever a movie like this promises to be — that you will laugh (in a properly low-key English way) and cry (but not too outrageously), and feel the sudden, urgent need to drink milky tea and own a pair of dungarees — The Dig more than fulfills its destiny. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 28, 2021
All of it works. All of it holds together, guided by the sure hand of director Simon Stone, who subtly imparts his sense of the story. His idea is that everyone involved mattered, and so we come away with an impression of an entire moment of time. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDan RubinsJan 27, 2021
The Dig clearly relishes in having found so many fascinating real people arriving at one place at once. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 26, 2021
I don’t know how many subscribers actually interested in its mature story and top-level craft will be able to unearth it from their Holidate-choked queues, but here’s hoping some are willing to embark on the excavation. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 14, 2021
Mulligan — drawn, wan and yet steely here — and Fiennes’ lightly-laid-on sturdy working class polymath turn make The Dig touching and richly rewarding, as entertaining as any movie about archeology could be without a bullwhip. Read full review
70
The New York TimesGlenn KennyJan 28, 2021
To its credit, this consistently interesting and at times engrossing picture declines to strike any of its notes with a hammer. Trading on the great British art of understatement, it’s scrupulous, sober, and tasteful throughout. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 13, 2021
It’s hard to say whether the period this picture exhumes was any more innocent than what the world now faces, but that’s certainly the way Stone plays it, acting like an urbane orchidologist, cross-breeding contemporary art-house touches with the old-school refinement of a vintage Masterpiece Theatre production. Sometimes the best escape from the craziness of today is to lose oneself in history. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 13, 2021
Simon Stone’s film, about a famous archaeological discovery, has an excellent cast, led by Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes and Lily James, all in top form. It takes place just as England is entering World War II, so there’s that, too. And since this evidently isn’t enough, some romance gets tacked on, as well. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 13, 2021
The storytelling is laced with a gentle thread of melancholy that makes this Netflix feature quite affecting. Read full review
67
ConsequenceMatt MelisJan 14, 2021
A touching film that perhaps spends a bit too much time digging in the wrong places. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeJan 13, 2021
For all the film’s sweeping, romantic ideas, the actual experience of watching The Dig is a lot like sitting at a bus stop. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 29, 2021
The Dig feels like a condensed version of a story that, given more time to breathe, might have been fascinating and emotionally effective. Read full review
63
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJan 14, 2021
It’s an intimate film that moves at the deliberate, careful pace of an excavation and, in so doing, uncovers a few gems along the way. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeJan 31, 2021
In a film defined by understatement, it’s the little details that matter. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenJan 29, 2021
It’s a vicarious pleasure to let The Dig’s warm, gauzy light wash over you. Blanketed in defiant optimism and soaked in summer sun, it’s definitely one to watch with your nan. When you’re allowed to, obvs. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerJan 26, 2021
The Dig is well played, especially by the leads, and visually gorgeous, but it lacks fire and ironically doesn’t get under the surface of its story. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 13, 2021
The Dig is actually not a very earthy film, though there is intelligence and sensitivity and a good deal of English restraint and English charm, thoroughly embodied by the fine leading performers Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneDavid FearJan 29, 2021
This is a passable substitute for the real thing. It could have burrowed so much deeper. Read full review
42
The PlaylistAsher LubertoJan 30, 2021
Although the actors are a joy to watch (as always), honestly, Edith and Basil’s real-life story just isn’t that cinematic, and the film never makes their discovery feel like our own. Read full review
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