In the Valley of Elah

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

Writer/director Paul Haggis, who turned his multicharacter drama Crash into a hit movie and surprise Best Picture Oscar winner two years ago, now follows it up with a much quieter, and even more profoundly troubling true tale of a returning soldier from Iraq who goes AWOL. This is a riveting, heartbreaking story that had to be told; and it's being told with honor and intelligence in a stirring film that will haunt you long after seeing it. Tommy Lee Jones, never better, recalls great legendary actors like Henry Fonda and Gary Cooper with his stoic and powerful presence as a father who is determined to learn the mystery of his son's disappearance. The politically tinged drama also unfolds as an entertaining whodunit when he enlists the aid of a sympathetic police detective (Charlize Theron) who gradually helps him uncover some of the dirty hidden secrets that might reveal clues to his boy's disappearance. Although this is not a film set in Iraq, it is no less powerful in showing the cost of the war, particularly the human price being paid by the young veterans returning home to what must seem for many of them (at least those depicted here) an indifferent, widely divided country. Significantly, some of the actors playing soldiers in the film are actual Iraq vets adding to the atmosphere of complete authenticity Haggis invests in this touching story. Theron and Susan Sarandon, in a small role as Jones' suffering wife, also turn in some of their best work in this vitally important movie not to be missed.

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