In the Valley of Elah (4 stars out of 4 stars)

In the Valley of Elah is Paul Haggis's first movie since his Oscar-winning Crash. It stars Tommy Lee Jones as a former military man (Military Police) whose son, who has been serving in Iraq, has gone AWOL. Jones then embarks on a personal mission to find his son. The movie also stars Charlize Theron in a dazzling role which highlights, not her glamorous beauty, but her great skills as an actress and chameleon. In supporting roles, James Franco, Josh Brolin and and Jason Patric (who is showing his age) also star.

I gave the film 4 stars out of 4 stars, not unlike someone else whose opinion on movies I revere. The movie is on one level a mystery and on another a profound political statement about the war in Iraq, as well as potentially a general statement about the brutality of war in general. We are confronted with soldiers returning from the war more wounded than anyone here can possible understand. Whether this war is somehow worse, in that regard, than any other war is another matter, but Haggis seems to suggest that at least he believes so. For one, we're given stories about the AWOL soldier's tour in the Bosnian conflict, which did not seem to leave the kinds of scars on him that the current war has left. And of course we're given Tommy Lee Jones' character himself, who may be somewhat naive about just how bad things are over there, despite himself having served in the military.

To say more is to spoil the film, as this is a movie that if you learned more of the plot, you would be robbed of certain viewing experiences that occur in the first 40 minutes of the film. But I strongly recommend you see it.