I don't really like Joe Swanberg and his improvisational style, but I keep watching his movies because of the casts he assembles (plus they're usually super short and hardly painful or anything). There are a ton of good people in Digging for Fire (also Orlando Bloom), perhaps too many. Several have little to do. The plot here is borderline nonsensical, and, like the other Swanberg films I've seen, it doesn't amount to much in the end. Jake Johnson and Rosemarie DeWitt star as a married couple with a 3-year old. They have been asked to housesit for one of DeWitt's rich clients (I think she's a yoga instructor). While exploring, Johnson finds a gun and a bone half buried in the backyard. DeWitt immediately forbids Johnson from informing the police (as any normal human being would), and a second argument about their son's preschool sends her to the home of her parents (Judith Light and Sam Elliot). Meanwhile, Johnson throws a party (where Sam Rockwell, Mike Birbiglia, Anna Kendrick, Chris Messina and Brie Larson show up). He and Larson are intrigued by the mystery and start digging further. Later on, DeWitt will run into Orlando Bloom and both members of the couple are sexually tempted. The whole body in the backyard thing is just symbolism, but the police really ought to have been called.
Review of Digging for Fire
