What can we do with Tom Cruise?
He wants so badly to be a character actor star in an Oscar driven movie, and get away from his franchise persona. No more Maverick or Ethan Hunt. A stretch, a return to Jerry Maguire or “Magnolia.”
But the mission may be impossible.
In the very funny Tropic Thunder,” Cruise stepped out of his comfort zone and into a social comedy. He put on a fat suit and a bald cap as Les Grossman, an arrogant, obnoxious self-possessed movie executive who some people recall as amusing but was incredibly repugnant. Cruise was thought to be sending up Scott Rudin, Joel Silver, Harvey Weinstein. I found it uncomfortable, bordering on antisemitic.
For “Digger,” directed by Oscar winner Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Tom returns to prosthetics including another wig, fat suit, and so on. When we first encounter him, he’s playing Digger Rockwell, a wealthy oil tycoon who cares nothing about the environment. He has teams of people fracking in the Arctic, looking for oil and disturbing nature as if he owned it. He’s also petting a freaky white cat as if he were Dr. Evil.
When Digger gets a call that the fracking has caused a massive ice shelf named Judy to start barreling toward Europe — potentially causing devastating flooding and worldwide displacement– Digger has mixed feelings. How can he turn it to his advantage? Meanwhile, his aide (a very good Riz Ahmed) and others (so many great actors wasted, like Michael Stuhlbarg, but kudos to Jesse Plemons, a breath of fresh air) who work for him, are sounding an alarm. They summon the President of the United States, who Digger essentially controls, to their conference room. That’s John Goodman, as President Compson. The beloved actor is usually reliable but here is disquietingly over the top and doing some bit from “The Hudsucker Proxy.” (PS The Compson name– does it come from Faulkner? Is all this the sound and the fury signifying nothing?)
What’s really happening is that we’re in a version of “Dr. Strangelove,” mixed with the more recent (and more entertaining) “Don’t Look Up.” I think it’s supposed to be funny, with Cruise flapping around like Foghorn Leghorn from Looney Tunes comics, tossing out mixed messages that are simultaneously woke and ignorant. Does Digger really care about the safety of the world? Or is he just upset he will be blamed for its demise? Isn’t he just Donald Trump — the billionaire who causes chaos then wants people to thank him for fixing it?
“Digger” is supposed to be a cautionary tale, but after a short time it starts to eat its own tail. The reason is that a little Digger Rockwell goes a long way, so making him the constant center of attention becomes grating, to say the least. If Cruise had just come for his big showstopping number — a 10 minute rant in front of “Congress” — he would have easily nailed Best Supporting Actor. But this way everything about him is so exaggerated, he becomes his own self-parody. After a while you start to wonder if Tom isn’t unwittingly lampooning L. Ron Hubbard, founder of his cult religion, Scientology.
It would be easier to dismiss the whole thing if the production weren’t such an elaborately detailed creation. The cinematography from three time Oscar winner Emmanuel “Chivo” Luzbecki is arresting, and the production design is stunning. The praise for the look of the film certainly outweighs the antics on screen. The artisans have designed “Digger” inn earth tones, shades of gray and brown drained of most color. Even as the world is falling apart, the rooms keep you looking around for clues. Don’t worry, they’re coming.
But then, there’s a twist. Or a reveal. A bit of Brechtian drama that almost works. This gang — Cruise, Goodman, Ahmed, Sandra Huller playing Digger’s sister — and so on, are not who they seemed to be at all. The problem, it doesn’t quite make sense. You want it to, but it’s a leap. I wish I could give this part away, but it’s the movie’s one surprise. There are some people who will find it brilliant or intriguing. Once the movie has been seen, we could discuss the ramifications of the reveal. While ambitious, I thought it was preposterous given what we’d already seen.
By the time we’re in this new scenario, even Inarritu knows he has to explain what’s going on. If you haven’t gotten the twist, a character played by Sophie Wilde adamantly reminds us that ‘this is satire.’ No kidding. It’s the director’s on-the-nose underscore so we know what the heck this convoluted mess is all about. But again it’s hard to imagine a paying audience actually enjoying “Digger,” or even finishing it to the end. It’s even harder to think they would recommend it to their friends.
By the way, if you want droll satire, try Barry Levinson’s “Wag the Dog,” or Robert Altman’s “The Player.” There’s a reason why they’ve lasted so long.
