Worthy, but not wholly convincing (In The Valley Of Elah (DVD))

Member Name: l-m-n-o-p

Product:	In The Valley Of Elah (DVD)
Date:	29/06/08 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great performance from Tommy Lee Jones

Disadvantages: Story strands not linked together that well; a bit unrealistic

Paul Haggis: powerful, insightful filmmaker or self-righteous preacher? With his latest offering, In The Valley of Elah, the writer/director of Crash will continue to divide audiences. Its poor performance at the US box office proved that the American public is not yet ready to embrace films dealing with the Iraq war, but credit must be given to Haggis, a director with a career trajectory worthy of NASA, for taking the risk of approaching this political minefield. In an attempt to deal with the war without making his film overly political, he focuses on the human cost of the conflict.

This comes in the form of Tommy Lee Jones, giving his second fantastic performance in the space of three months (after the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men). He plays Hank Deerfield, an ex-sergeant who discovers his son, Mike, has gone AWOL on his return from fighting in Iraq. Leaving his worried wife (Susan Sarandon) at home, Hank goes on a journey to discover what has happened to him. Faced with army cover-ups, traumatised young men and police bureaucracy, he gains the help of an angry young policewoman (Charlize Theron), and the pair investigate what appears to be Mike's involvement in a drugs operation.

Whilst it shows considerably more subtlety than Crash, this film also lacks the punch of certain scenes in that film. It plods along nicely, the mystery becoming gradually resolved, but there was nothing along the way that stirred any emotion in me. Jones' restrained performance is spot on, but the 'parents coping with grief' storyline has been done much better in films such as In The Bedroom. This is a pity, since given more screen time, their part of the story had potential. Sarandon is particularly wasted, practically disappearing from the film halfway through.

Rather, Haggis concentrates on the police investigation, which is probably the least interesting strand of the film. The twists along the way are uninteresting and the conclusion unrealistic, whilst by playing an intelligent female character, Theron is given the obligatory cliché of battling against sexism in the workplace. Surprisingly, her acting doesn't convince, and her character just doesn't ring true when she's arguing with suspects. Then again, the film's other main strand is equally implausible. One by one, Hank manages to view videos from Iraq on Mike's phone which create an increasingly disturbing picture of his son. Whilst these clips effectively demonstrate how war corrupts young minds, I couldn't get over the suspicion that this was simply a hokey plot device.

Elah is by no means a bad film, and there are parts which do work very well, but Haggis has tried to be too ambitious. In Crash he was able to weave together different plot strands because they were all on the theme of racism. By trying to combine strands that are so different, he creates a film which is brave but muddled, and eventually gets lost in a sea of symbols and allegorical bedtime stories. Thank god for the stable presence of Tommy Lee Jones, who provides the humanity that the film aimed for.

Summary: An interesting follow up to Crash