Diggers (2006)
#36 in my 2007 movie challenge was Diggers, starring Paul Rudd. Is there anything he can’t do–television, movies, poker, music, dancing, comedy, and drama?
In Diggers he’s a 70’s clam digger who can’t quite work up the nerve to leave his small job and small town.
Diggers may seem like a tired premise: four working class buddies try with varying success to manage family, work and times that are a-changin’. Yet the acting, the humor of Ken Marino’s script (he played Vinnie Van Lowe on Veronica Mars), and director Katherine Dieckmann’s obvious affection both for the characters and story all elevate this little indie.
Rudd, Marino, and Maura Tierney gave strong performances that resulted in complex, sympathetic characters. Lauren Ambrose and Ron Eldard looked good, but their acting showed–they didn’t inhabit their characters as completely as the rest of the cast. I watched the deleted scenes both with and without commentary. Unlike other DVDs, where the deleted scenes make clear the reason they were cut, these flesh out the characters, and show the process of editing. Some were removed when the storyline changed, and characters were dropped, and sequences of events changed. Yes, a few were superfluous, but overall watching them improved my appreciation for the sweet film a great deal.