A difficult film to ingest Soft for Digging can be a rewarding experience primarily for the more adventurous moviegoer. Shrouded in silence, there are 2 brief scenes of dialogue in the whole 74-minute running time. The first word of dialogue ("murder") is not spoken until at least an hour into the film (the second bit of dialogue is so poorly dubbed and acted, it's better left out). Soft for Digging tells the tale of an older man, Virgil Manoven (well played by Edmond Mercier) who lives alone deep within the woods. One fine day Virgil's cat decides to retreat into the woods and Virgil follows behind in his bathrobe. Virgil thinks he sees a child being murdered (so do we) but nobody is sure as to what really happened (audience and characters alike). Plagued by nightmares and lack of evidence for the authorities (as well as himself), Virgil sets out to put his mind at ease. Soft for Digging is a slow moving, slowly paced story that has some creepy and satisfying results. Soft for Digging is a film that relies heavily on tone, which is set not only by the actors, but by the locations, camera movement, and sound mix (all of which become characters in their own right).

Soft for Digging is told in a storybook fashion with chapters and brief explanations of the scenes to come. While the actual story is not wholly original, the execution is, and all involved get major points for this. If Soft for Digging shows us only one thing, it's the true raw talent behind the scenes. Soft for Digging is a deliberately paced mind-fuck of a film. Not without its problems, Soft For Digging can still be a rewarding experience. The director (J.T Petty) who made this film as part of his college requirements is destined to move onto bigger and better things, and I'm looking forward to see what he does next.

Thumbs up.