Butler's Cinema Scene

Jake Johnson, Rosemarie DeWitt

“DIGGING FOR FIRE” My rating: B (Opening Aug. 28 at the Screenland Armour)

85 minutes  | MPAA rating: R

If indie auteur Joe Swanberg isn’t careful, he’s going to start making movies that people actually see.

Up to now Swanberg’s heavily-improvised, generational-specific films have earned him cred on the cinematic fringes (and the irritating label “mublecore”).  But last year he made a modest though hugely likable splash with the family dramady “Happy Christmas” — a sign that he may be approaching his cinematic maturity.

With “Digging for Fire” he delivers his most mainstream-friendly effort to date…which is not to say that it’s conventional, only that he’s finding ways to finesse his austere signature style.

Married couple Tim and Lee (Swanberg regular Jake Johnson, who also co-wrote, and Rosemarie DeWitt) are a struggling L.A. couple with an adorable 3-year-old son (Swanberg’s son Jude, a born actor if there ever was one).  He’s a public school teacher.  She’s a yoga instructor.

A wealthy movie industry friend on a foreign shoot has invited them to spend a couple of months living in her ultra cool house on a heavily wooded slope high in the Hollywood hills. We’re talking swimming pool, hammock, plenty of room for the kid’s tricycle.

On their first day in the new digs Tim makes a discovery while walking around the property.  From an overgrown hillside he recovers what looks like a human rib and a heavily-rusted cheap revolver.

The cops aren’t interested in his find — they’ll only show up for an entire corpse. But Tim is intrigued.

Mike Berbiglia, Jake Johnson, Sam Rockwell

“Digging for Fire” follows Tim and Lee as they go on separate adventures. (They’ve been married a decade. They’re happy.  They love their boy.  But, man, each could use a break.)

Lee drops their boy off  with her wealthy mom and stepfather (Judith Light, Sam Elliott), then heads out for an all-night adventure that finds her walking the beach near dawn with a charming bistro owner (Orlando Bloom).

Tim invites some friends old and new (among them Mike Berbiglia, Anna Kendrick, and Sam Rockwell) to spend a night partying around the pool.  Before long they’re digging into the hillside looking for more evidence of a long-ago murder (among their finds: A decades-old license plate, a man’s shoe, what appears to be a human femur.)

Particularly obsessed with the sleuthing is Max (Brie Larson), a pretty young woman who becomes Tim’s archaeological partner. And, yeah, there’s an element of flirting involved.

The possible murder mystery is mostly a red herring, providing a framework upon which Swanberg and his cast (among the other recognizable faces are Melanie Lynskey, Chris Messina, Jenny Slate, Ron Livingston and Jane Adams) are able to improvise various relationships.

The film is simultaneously nothing special and weirdly compelling.  There are few big dramatic moments, but you find yourself enjoying being in the company of these people.

| Robert W. Butler