Nepal, Oct. 6 -- Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Digger might be the mostself-serious unserious film I've seen in recent memory. Ostentatious sets,unsubtle acting punctuated by facial tics, and a score (by Cosmo Sheldrake)that underlines nearly every emotion: the film rarely looks like the finesthour of its star-studded team. Then, about a third into the 129-minute film,Inarritu reveals his conceit: what we've been watching is a rehearsal of a playcalled Fossil Fools, supposed to premiere later in the day.

Built around greedy fossil fuel baron Digger Rockwell (TomCruise), who [in the film's world] triggered an apocalypse with his recklessextraction rigs in Greenland and Alaska, Inarritu's film admits to be aimingfor a deliberately underwhe...