Running time: 122 minutes
Rating 7 out of 10
Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) is a Vietnam vet searching for his missing son in In the Valley of Elah. The fact that his son is also a soldier, AWOL after a tour of duty in Iraq, means that Hank bangs his head against a wall of military intransigence, as the might of the machine shows little interest in his son's welfare once he is not on duty. It's a David and Goliath struggle for Hank to find out anything at all, a metaphor which gives the film its title as Elah is the name of the valley where the Israelites fought the Philistines.
With a grieving wife at home - they have already lost one son in a military accident - Hank enlists the reluctant help of local detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron), the only woman in a sexist police department. Not being a man to suffer fools or take no for an answer, Hank commandeers the investigation in an attempt to find the truth.
Paul Haggis writes and makes his first directorial outing since the Oscar-winning Crash (although in the meantime he found the time to pen Casino Royale, The Last Kiss, Letters From Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers), and has provided a vehicle for another Oscar nomination for his leading man (Jones' third nomination). The film is the latest in a line of cinematic works looking at the impact and effect of the war in Iraq, all of which - Elah included - have failed to light up the American box office due possibly to audience fatigue on the subject.
Yet Elah should not be casually dismissed as for most of its running time it's a fairly engaging thriller which obliquely shows the effect of the conflict on one family. Jones, an old-fashioned military man, learns that his son may not have been the exemplary soldier he thought he had brought up, as his belief in the absolute right of the military begins to falter.
While it's not the most exciting of films, it's a worthwhile one with a top notch cast. Theron, Susan Sarandon, Jason Patric and Josh Brolin offer quality support but it's the Tommy Lee roadshow. He's unlikely to win the Oscar for Best Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis will undoubtedly take the honours for There Will Be Blood - but it's another fine performance in a distinguished career.
Paul Hurley
With a grieving wife at home - they have already lost one son in a military accident - Hank enlists the reluctant help of local detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron), the only woman in a sexist police department. Not being a man to suffer fools or take no for an answer, Hank commandeers the investigation in an attempt to find the truth.
Paul Haggis writes and makes his first directorial outing since the Oscar-winning Crash (although in the meantime he found the time to pen Casino Royale, The Last Kiss, Letters From Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers), and has provided a vehicle for another Oscar nomination for his leading man (Jones' third nomination). The film is the latest in a line of cinematic works looking at the impact and effect of the war in Iraq, all of which - Elah included - have failed to light up the American box office due possibly to audience fatigue on the subject.
Yet Elah should not be casually dismissed as for most of its running time it's a fairly engaging thriller which obliquely shows the effect of the conflict on one family. Jones, an old-fashioned military man, learns that his son may not have been the exemplary soldier he thought he had brought up, as his belief in the absolute right of the military begins to falter.
While it's not the most exciting of films, it's a worthwhile one with a top notch cast. Theron, Susan Sarandon, Jason Patric and Josh Brolin offer quality support but it's the Tommy Lee roadshow. He's unlikely to win the Oscar for Best Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis will undoubtedly take the honours for There Will Be Blood - but it's another fine performance in a distinguished career.
Paul Hurley
