IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH
In The War At Home, Grieving and Guestimating To Make Sense Of Senseless
Consequences
PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "In The Valley Of Elah"
By Omar P.L. Moore/September 15, 2007
Pain, Parenting And A Missing Son: Tommy Lee Jones as Hank Deerfield and Susan
Sarandon as Joan Deerfield in a search for their missing son who has been
fighting in the military in Iraq, in Paul Haggis's film "In The Valley Of Elah",
which opened yesterday in the U.S. and Canada. (Photos: Warner Independent
Pictures)
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Whether "Elah" is pronounced "illa", or "eela", or "elar", one
knows not, but one thing is certain: Paul Haggis (director of the 2005 best
picture Oscar-winning film "Crash" and writer of "Million Dollar Baby", and
co-writer of "Casino Royale", "Flags Of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima")
has directed the best American film of the year with "In The Valley Of Elah",
starring a remarkable Oscar-winning trio.
While "Elah" is a safe bet for a best picture Oscar nomination, Tommy Lee Jones is the
anchor and soul of this dramatic masterwork. He is destined for a lead
Oscar acting nomination as former U.S. Colonel Hank Deerfield, desperately
searching for his missing son who has disappeared while fighting as a U.S.
soldier in Iraq. Before the film's two hours have concluded the audience
Jones will have worn grief like a wrinkled wet shirt. There's a nobility
and grace in Hank's grief, and though Jones embeds it in his character
remarkably, the film at large doesn't call overwhelming attention to it, despite
the intense subject matter that looms in the film. Haggis instead makes
Hank and his situation genuine, urgent and discreet. We don't know whether
Hank's relationship with his missing son is the best or the worst, and where "Elah"
could have derailed was by adding this spot of melodrama to the proceedings --
which it wisely resists. Instead, Hank's relationship with his wife of
many years, Joan Deerfield (Susan Sarandon) is the variable which is affected.
The interplay between Jones and Sarandon is filled with all the delicacies,
fractures and fragilities that a long marriage has to endure, and when the tough
times arrive on their doorstep, the scenes between them as a married twosome are
simply marvelous. One scene in particular, which sees them in two
different physical places, is nicely edited (by Jo Francis) and acted
wonderfully, providing for one (and there are several) of the most natural and
truthful moments in the film.
Hank turns detective when the Bradford Police do sloppy detective work on the
leads on his son. There's a "Fugitive" moment in some of these scenes for
Mr. Jones, but these are more endearing than annoying to an audience, who will
be thinking about the actor's Oscar-winning turn in that 1993 film when Hank
steers Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron), a police detective who has just been
transferred from working on menial assignments to the land where the big boys
play. And her male colleagues, as sexist as the day is long, play country
hardball with her, but she has more than just a simple rejoinder for them to
ponder. Emily is fearless and resilient, and her can-do relentlessness
make her character a standout as she is compelled to look at the investigation
of Hank's son Mike (Jonathan Tucker) in a whole new light. The screenplay
by Haggis also gives Emily a larger stake in the proceedings: she investigates
the case of the missing Mike as if it were her own son, David (Devin Brochu), a
six year-old, who in ten years may be where Mike is.
Mission Unaccomplished: Charlize Theron as Police Detective Emily Sanders, in
"In The Valley Of Elah". Theron is riveting and brilliantly compelling in
the film.
Emily has to encounter the laconic nature of her superior (played
with boozy, breezy dispassion by Josh Brolin, who continues to excel as he
matures as a terrific actor -- next for him and Mr. Jones is "No Country For Old
Men".) Emily has to also take on Lt. Kirkland, the U.S. federal government
investigating officer played by Jason Patric (excellently understated here) as a
bureaucratic higher-up who makes things just a little harder on Emily than
necessary. Emily embodies the "David" (or Davida) in this Goliath tussle,
which is referenced in the film at one point, and in the film's title, which
refers to the precise spot in Israel where more than 30 centuries ago the battle
between these two biblical principals occurred. The film story's structure
is episodic, a series of blips and circumstances rather than a story that
exercises flash, dash and abundance of consistent visual movement in a frame or
scene. Certain imagery is alarming and shocking in "In The Valley Of Elah",
but the components aren't played for shock value or to wake up an audience,
which will have no trouble keeping its eyes open during Mr. Haggis's film.
Theron and Jones have some special interactions in "Elah", which has its very
funny moments amidst the thickness of its power, and the ensemble cast which
includes Frances Fisher, James Franco, Wes Chatham, Jake McLaughlin, Mechad
Brooks and Victor Wolf, more than hold up their end of a stunningly good acting
bargain. Mark Isham's music score is well-placed without overwhelming an
already moving motion picture. Mark Boal and Mr. Haggis devised the story,
which works well, and rarely manipulates, if at all. Roger Deakins's
mournfully-toned cinematography is purposely drained of a little color, which
for the weight of this film is more than appropriate. And Haggis writes
pathos, empathy and complexity in such deeply heartfelt ways. In "Crash"
it worked to fine and ironic effect, and in "Elah" such qualities in the writing
aren't a hit-or-miss proposition either.
"Elah" is about understanding, and the struggle to understand. The film is
also about misunderstanding and incomprehension, as well as about the inability
to articulate, even as that inability explodes in the smallest moments of
powerful revelation, which is where "Elah" excels most. When a young man
or woman returns home from the harrowing effect of war, what happens? What
is done? Mr. Haggis addresses these issues subtly, but doesn't answer them
-- and no filmmaker worth his or her salt should ever be charged with having to
do so. "Elah" illustrates a daunting and strangely-articulated conundrum
-- depicting the impossibilities and incredulities of subtlety in both a
subtle and unsubtle manner -- the hidden and unseen forces of violence that
suddenly overwhelm -- and even though we don't witness a single fatality occur
on screen during the film's two hours, we feel that a greater kind of violence
has ravaged our hearts as well as the landscape in Iraq, the United States and
elsewhere -- a violence which today's news headlines don't always make so
apparent.
From start to finish, "In The Valley Of Elah" is a rich, absorbing and
thought-provoking drama about the prescient issue of soldiers returning home
that too few of us are willing to address. In film-land at least, Paul
Haggis does so with credibility and understated conviction.
"In The Valley Of Elah" is rated R for violent and disturbing content, language
and some sexuality/nudity. The film's duration is two hours.
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2007.
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