DIGGING FOR FIRE

Marriage, children nor the maintenance of both come with a “how to” manual.  It’s a daily  surprise of events and constant discoveries.  Often times, when couples have children,  they feel as if they no longer have an identity beyond being Mom and Dad.  What happened to the person you brought to the marriage before the bundle of joy arrived?

Digging for Fire is not as obvious of a title as one might expect.  Tim’s  (Jake Johnson) discovery of a bone and gun in the backyard sends him on a hunt to solve a mystery.  Meanwhile, Lee (Rosemarie DeWitt) is in a constant search of how to reignite the “fire” in their marriage.  As a matter of fact, in a very clever move by the filmmakers, Lee found a copy of David Schnarch’s book Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Relationships in almost every location she traveled. – her sister’s house, her Mom’s house, even the house of a complete stranger.

In essence, Tim is digging for the fire that has ignited his sense of curiosity of his new-found murder mystery and Lee is digging for the fire to re-ignite intimacy in her marriage.  In the process,they make discoveries about themselves, family and friends that bring them back to who they were before becoming parents – realizing that their relationship is not in as much trouble as they thought.

Jake Johnson did an exemplary job with this screenplay, which I peeped earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.  Even more impressive,  is the cast he was able to assemble as Producer, which includes Anna Kendrick, Sam Elliott, Orlando Bloom, Judith Light and Sam Rockwell just to name a few.  Johnson sure has come a long way since “New Girl”.

Sam Rockwell (Ray) in a wild, eclectic performance layered with comedy and straight up craziness is  well worth the roller-coaster ride his character puts the audience through.

Mike Birbiglia (Phil) as Tim and Lee’s  well-meaning, overprotective family friend provides us with many a comical line.

However, Orlando Bloom (Ben) is charmingly handsome as the bar stranger with all the right moves and qualities to sweep a girl off her feet.  That scene with the walk on the ocean is priceless

After making the film festival rounds, Digging With Fire finally makes its domestic theatrical release today!!!  It’s a great indie film with a lot of heart.  Check it out!