In the Valley of Elah

CinemaSerf

Mar 17, 2025 · via TMDB

★ 6.0

When “Hank” (Tommy Lee Jones) gets a call to say that his soldier son “Mike” has gone awol shortly after his return to the USA from Iraq, he sets off to track him down. Initially, he hits a wall of indifference from investigators but then an hacked-up body is discovered and quickly identified as the missing man. Together with police officer “Sanders” (Charlize Theron) - who is, herself, having to prove her worth in a chauvinist department of clods, they decide it’s best to work together on a case that seems to suggest that drugs might be at the bottom of the case and that some of his son’s erstwhile colleagues from the war might know more or even be complicit. Of course “Hank” doesn’t want to believe that his son could be involved in dealing narcotics, but as they begin to piece things together with some spurious clues and conflicting testimony, it looks like that might just be the only solution. The first hour or so of this is quite a potent look at just how war takes away any perception of the value of life. “It’s how we coped” is often used, and plausibly so on many occasions, but as we near the denouement the structures of the story start to fall away and the denouement is distinctly weak - as if the writer hadn’t quite the courage of any convictions necessary to see the thrust of their story through to a more honest conclusion. It just sort of peters out with a denouement that seems to want to make an entirety independent statement about the effects of war that makes decent men less so and bad men more so. There’s too much chatter about who has jurisdiction and the sparing appearances from Susan Sarandon as wife/mother “Joan” can’t really add much more than the desperate mother wondering what her son was doing in the military in the first place, and that of course points a finger squarely at a dad who perhaps demanded too much of his child. It is worth a watch as there is a degree of chemistry between Jones and Theron but there’s simply not enough meat on it’s bones.

A soldier disappears after he has come back from Iraq. His father, Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones), is alerted and sets off in the hopes of finding his son. He soon finds out that his son was actually killed, brutally you might say, his body cut up and burned. The evidence lead in no real directions, but it soon becomes apparent that his army bodies are lying, also, the images that Hank recovers from his son's phone, seem to suggest that something happened in Iraq. To say anything more would be to ruin the movie. However, this movie is not just a crime story, where we follow the father and cop (Charlize Theron) as they get to the bottom of the mystery. This is a story about war, the people in it and at hoome, as well as bravery and sorrow. It is told carefully, and with skillfully precision by the entire cast, and Paul Haggis. By the end, we don't even really care about the murder being solved, just that the father finally made peace with his son. He understands better than anyone what war does to a man, you can see that clearly in his eyes throughout the movie. Only one thing bothered me about this movie, and it is actually something that bothers me quite often. Music. I don't mind music in movies, I don't even mind music that enhances a certain emotion, sorrow, happiness etc. No, what bothers me is that moviemakers feel that they need music so badly, when really, they don't. More often than not, the images and actors speak the words clearly, we don't need the sad tones to emphasize what we are already feeling. It's not that bad in this movie, but I did notice it a few times, where it bothered me. _Last words... don't watch this movie and feel like you need to "figure it out". It's not about that at all, just allow yourself to be swept away be the amazing cast and let the story onfold itself in front of you. This is not a story about a crime, but a story about a father... and a son._