Tough in the Valley

I suppose the amazing thing about Paul Haggis's Iraq war drama "In the Valley of Elah" is the fact that it was made while the war is still going on. The film very much reminded me of the great Vietnam films of the late seventies like "The Deer Hunter" where it depicts what happens to soldiers when they come home and how it has effected them, but it took years after Vietnam for that film to happen.

"In the Valley of Elah" begins when a father (Tommy Lee Jones) learns that his son who was serving in Iraq has gone AWOL. The father soon decides to go to his son's army base to find out what happened. After going through his son's stuff he finds a cellphone with some scrambled video on it, this cellphone may be the key to why his son disappeared. But we soon find out his son was killed. In a sort of a ritualistic killing, we learn he was burnt, stabbed several times, and decapitated. Jones soon shows the part of the grieving father wanting desperately to find answers. He soon sets out on his own investigation to get to the bottom of this. A police officer (Charlize Theron) who fights to work on the case takes pity on the father and together they form a bit partnership to solve the case together.

The three main suspects are thought to be three army buddies of Jones' son who were with him on the night of the murder. Jones believes the soldiers wouldn't kill one of their own but thinks they are hiding something instead. As the story becomes slowly uncovered we learn the murder does have something to do with the son's time in Iraq and the soldiers who were witness to what was going on over there.

It's safe to say "Yes this is a message movie" which may make some people steer clear of this film, it's a film that has a point of view but what Haggis does sometimes brilliantly (Like he did with "Crash") is show everyone as human beings even the criminals, I think that's the making of a good writer. Since 2004 Paul Haggis has either written, co-written, and or directed many of the best American films that have come out, he seems to be able to do no wrong. He's the type of person who aims for the heart and he wants you to feel something, he tends to say it better more with his words than with his camera lens but it can be just as powerful. In "Crash" he was able to show how some people could overcome their prejudice or hatred and do a decent thing. We were shown how one person could maybe have hateful feelings towards one person.

In this film we learn how a war could change a fairly decent kid into a drug addict or a ritualistic killer.

The acting here is also very powerful. Tommy Lee Jones can add this to one of his very great performances, he has the perfect face to show this man's sadness and inner rage at what happened to his son. Very rarely does he ever raise his voice or shed a tear but he never has to go there to let us know what he's feeling.

Charlize Theron is one of those intelligent smart young actresses who also happens to be gorgeous, but she's able to make her character believable and also with a sense of sadness. She has her own demons she's fighting and her own feeling of guilt.

That being said I did not think this film was a perfect one, it works more as a war drama and missteps a few times when it tries to be a police procedural, some actors like Jason Patric who plays the head army investigator is only there to be some kind of foil for Theron's character. The biggest flaw was underusing Susan Sarandon as Jones' grieving wife, she does have a couple of great scenes but she suddenly disappears and I would've liked to see more of a relationship between her and Jones.

But the power of "In the Valley of Elah" is the subject matter it brings up and the "Message" behind it. It asks some tough questions, questions that we unfortunately have to face again. It's a reminder of the consequences that perhaps weren't thought about hard enough before entering a war and also a reminder on why it should only be the last option.