Tom Cruise trades stunts for satire as toxic tycoon ‘Digger

Tom Cruise is taking on one of his riskiest roles in decades, tackling climate change and corporate greed in “Digger”, which sees him play an embattled, ageing tycoon.
Backed by a reported $130 million budget and an advertising blitz, the dark comedy from multi-Oscar-winning Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu hits screens from Wednesday.
Taking a break from his usual action roles, Cruise is barely recognisable as a mining and oil magnate facing an environmental crisis. The original screenplay sees him wrestle with his conscience and critics of his wealth and business.
“It is the culmination of all my skills,” Cruise, 64, told GQ magazine earlier this month. “It’s the most challenging character ever.”
Following the London premiere on September 22, initial online reaction was mixed, suggesting the melodramatic performances and Inarritu’s acidic parody of billionaires and climate campaigning will divide audiences.
Cruise has spent most of this century making action movies, particularly as Ethan Hunt in the eight-film “Mission: Impossible” series, alongside “Top Gun: Maverick” and the “Jack Reacher” films. He will also appear in a “Days of Thunder” sequel later this year.
For film critic and author A.S. Hamrah, who has written extensively about Cruise’s work, the last roles that harnessed his full range date back to the 1990s.
“I think Tom Cruise is looking back on his career and realising he’s ageing and that, on the one hand, he still has to do things like ‘Top Gun II’ and ‘Days of Thunder II’, but on the other he hasn’t really been in any serious film since 1999,” he told AFP.

That year brought Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia” and Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut”, in which Cruise appeared opposite his former wife Nicole Kidman.
Hamrah suggested Cruise may also be seeking opportunities to work with directors he admires, including Inarritu, whose films include “Amores Perros” and “The Revenant”.
Shawn Robbins, founder of US cinema consultancy Box Office Theory, said Cruise’s career demonstrated a willingness to venture beyond his comfort zone.
“Younger audiences may associate him with being a risky stunt performer and actor, but he’s always prepared to go outside the box,” he said, citing “Vanilla Sky” and “Jerry Maguire”.
“We have to put Digger in a separate category from the typical Tom Cruise blockbuster. It’s something all of its own,” he added.
The film also raises questions about how far Cruise personally embraces its political messages, which take aim at unsustainable lifestyles, virtue-signalling consumer behaviour and hypocritical politicians.
“I think that like Leonardo DiCaprio, I think he’s concerned about climate change and the environment,” said Hamrah, author of “Last Week in End Times Cinema” and a critic at n+1 magazine.
Beyond its political themes, the film could offer Cruise another opportunity to pursue an elusive best actor Oscar, with a performance markedly different from the action roles that have defined much of his recent career.
Asked whether the role might bring him into contention, Robbins said: “It could be an awards season player.” — AFP