By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Katherine Dieckmann
Starring: Ken Marino | Lauren Ambrose | Maura Tierney | Paul Rudd
Country: united_states
Year: 2007
Running time: 96
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469897/
Michael says: “Is it a nostalgia piece looking back on working class lives on Long Island in the late 70’s? Is it a tale of big corporations taking the livelihoods of the individual? Is it a coming-of-age story about a 34-year-old clamdigger who finds his life unmoored after his father dies? DIGGERS is a little film that tries to do a lot while working hard to please a mainstream audience. The setting is the Long Island shore in the late 70’s. The story follows a group of four buddies, clamdiggers all, and the difficulties they face in the wake of a big corporation coming into town and marking certain clamming areas off limits. DIGGERS focuses mainly on two characters: Hunt (Paul Rudd) who’s reeling with some guilt after the sudden death of his father, and Lozo (Ken Marino – who also wrote the screenplay) a brutish boor with a long-suffering wife who is forced to consider working for the enemy to support his 5 (soon-to-be-six) children. There are a couple of buddies, a sister, and a potential love interest from the city to round out the character roster, but it’s all such a neat package. It’s a perfectly entertaining film to watch, but there really isn’t an original bone in its body.
“Marino, whose background is largely television, has written a film that has the feel of one of those family television series (I kept thinking of ‘Brothers & Sisters’ while I watched). There are a lot of emotional moments, and lots of humor; there are enough characters to fill at least a season’s worth of stories. It’s also one of those series that I would probably not enjoy. It’s always nice to see Paul Rudd, who just gets more and more appealing as he gets older; and it’s great to see Lauren Ambrose doing some post-‘Six Feet Under’ work (but, Lauren… put on a few pounds please!) Too bad the project wasn’t a little more challenging for them. 2 ½ cats”