Alejandro González Iñárritu's 'Digger' Starring Tom Cruise Faces Critical and Commercial Collapse

Alejandro González Iñárritu's new film 'Digger' has been critically panned worldwide. The Boston Globe gave it 0 stars, while The Guardian called it "shallow, laborious" and "the most disappointing film of the year." Commercially, it is a disaster: costing over $250m (€223m) to make and market, it earned only $8m (€7.1m) domestically in its first week. Some predict it will be the greatest flop of all time. This contrasts with Iñárritu's previous films, 'The Revenant' and 'Birdman,' which were universally adored, award-winning, and commercially successful. Star Tom Cruise has long faced dissonance between scathing reviews and billion-dollar box office. However, in Denmark, the film received near-universal acclaim. Politiken and Jyllands-Posten both gave it six stars, and other Danish media called it the "film of the year" and "Cruise's best performance ever." This extreme critical schism has precedents: Kevin Costner's 'Waterworld' was huge in Japan; Antonio Banderas's 'The 13th Warrior' was liked in Scandinavia; German critics praised 'The Tourist'; French cineastes worshipped Jerry Lewis; and French critics recently praised 'Ella McCay,' which has 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. The author saw 'Digger' in a fuller-than-usual cinema, finding it "not awful, just very on the nose and exhausting," with highly strung performances and a meandering plot. Sandra Hüller, a brilliant actor, is required merely to scream and gurn. Cruise's Oscar chances seem slim.