In the Valley of Elah (Blu-ray)

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Paul Haggis´ directorial follow-up to his award winning film "Crash" is the crime drama "In the Valley of Elah." Haggis has churned out a number of successful screenplays since 2004´s "Million Dollar Baby" and has worked directly with Clint Eastwood in crafting screenplays for the two films centered on Iwo Jima and helped craft the two screenplays for the Daniel Craig era James Bond films. While he is in demand as a screenplay writer, Haggis is showing he is a talented director as both "Crash" and "In the Valley of Elah" are masterful examples of storytelling that are intelligent films and contain solid performances from their lead actors.

Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon headline Haggis´ latest film. Tommy Lee Jones brings along his familiar surly act to the role of Hank Deerfield and while we have seen Jones use a similar demeanor before in the films "The Fugitive," "Volcano" and "Men In Black," the rough and gruff character that Jones can conjure works beautifully in this film and it is always a joy to watch Jones portray the confident and crotchety man. Sooner or later Jones will star in a film where he will finally get to yell at kids to get off of his lawn. In the film, Jones routinely barks commands in a familiar manner that always deserves applause. His character says the kind of things many of us would love to say.

Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron are two talented actresses. Theron is a gorgeous woman who has come a long way since "2 Days in the Valley" to prove herself a capable and talented actress. It is hard work for a woman to succeed in Hollywood to the degree she has and she brings this struggle to her role as Detective Emily Sanders, a woman who is ridiculed by her fellow police officers who believe that she earned her detectives badge solely by sleeping with police chief Buchwald (Josh Brolin). Theron brings intelligence to her performance and holds her own rather nicely against Jones, an actor who routinely delivers a powerful performance. Sarandon has a lesser role as Hank Deerfield´s wife Joan, but her performance as a heartbroken and frustrated housewife is nothing short of brilliant.

The essential plot of the film is that Hank Deerfield discovers that his son Michael (Jonathan Tucker) has went absent without leave from the military. Hank is a retired Sergeant who was a member of the military police. He leaves his homelife to find his son and leaves Joan behind. However, when he arrives, he finds the police not willing to help locate his missing son and he neither believes the military police or detective Emily Sanders is competent enough to find his boy. Things take a horrible turn for the worse when Michael´s body is found and Deerfield must uncover who the murderer of his son was and the reasoning for the murder. After some bureaucratic fumbling, Emily becomes lead detective on the case and must work with Hank to uncover the truths behind the gut-wrenching murder.

"In the Valley of Elah" starts of slow it takes a little time for the film to finally take off. The beginning of the film is a little shaky as Theron and Sarandon are not given much screen time and the film must rest only on a hopeful Hank Deerfield´s shoulders as he hopes to find his son. However, once hope is lost and Deerfield´s surly demeanor and desperate situation allows Tommy Lee Jones to do what he does best, the film starts to move along nicely. Until it is revealed that Michael has been murdered and the reveal is both gruesome and disconcerting, "In the Valley of Elah" feels like a very slow episode of "CSI." Once the movie allows itself to be the well-acted drama it is, "In the Valley of Elah" is entertaining.

It is a good thing that "In the Valley of Elah" has as many strong actors as it does, as the film suffers greatly from technical details and investigative techniques to make it a proper crime drama. Everything from the technology shown to the techniques used is either thin or uninteresting. For instance, common cell phones cannot record or encode video at the length and resolution shown in the film. I won´t even get into the technology in recovering the data or transmitting it to the network connection in a small town motel with much speed. A single conversation about the remains of Michael Deerfield is the only in-depth discussion of actual investigative techniques and if you were expecting "In the Valley of Elah" to be a provocative and deep exercise in investigation; you will be disappointed.

Thankfully, the actors rise to the occasion and even though it lacks in details, the story of "In the Valley of Elah" is strong and interesting. The film takes a look at the psychological effect that war has on the young warriors that are thrust into a hectic and deadly situation and how it shapes their attitudes and actions. The film looks at the flaws injected into the character of Michael and how he is no longer the model son of loving parents, but a monster of a man who falls prey to prostitution, drugs and physical violence. Of course, some will argue that "In the Valley of Elah" is making an anti-war statement by painting such ugly portraits of the young veterans of the Gulf Wars. It definitely does not leave us feeling warm and fuzzy about Army veterans.

I am not going to delve into Haggis´ opinions or war and its soldiers. I served in the United States Army as an Infantryman during the first Gulf War and although I did not step onto foreign soil, I have different views than somebody who wasn´t involved in the horrors of war. The war didn´t last long enough for my own deployment, but I had friends and fellow servicemen take part in the war and I could write a long dissertation on what I have known and experienced. I will say that Haggis does make a good point about the travesties and ugliness of war and how it can misshape the mind of those that take part in such a conflict. This subject matter is a major point of "In the Valley of Elah" and I will leave it at that.