From scanning reviews, I’d always presumed In the Valley of Elah to form part of the early post-9/11 response from decent filmmakers. After the initial, palpable, fear-led self-consorship by the American media came a clutch of movies that attempted to criticize the invasion of Iraq, not directly but hesitantly at the fringes of the war. Most such films failed miserably but I’m happy to report that In the Valley of Elah (watched on DVD after a pitifully short Australian season swept past me) is both a splendid film and a bearer of messages.
The film’s plot is straightforward enough. Retired military policeman Hank Deefield (Tommy Lee Jones) receives the kind of phone call once familiar in the Vietnam era. His son Mike, recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq, has gone AWOL from his military base. Nothing makes sense when Hank investigates, the news worsens, and he is joined in an intense quest for the truth by an idealistic policewoman (a pitch-perfect performance by Charlize Theron).
This material could have elicited any number of cliches. Instead the script, by director Paul Haggis, is a corker, unravelling fast but without undue speed, springing suprise after surprise. Haggis’s direction is brilliant; every scene informs the characters or plot, and he is not afraid to dwell on the desolate terrain (inside and outside) of isolated middle America. But what transforms this drama into a literate thriller is Tommy Lee Jones’s breathtaking acting. He inhabits the character of Hank so well, it took less than five minutes for me to fully identify with him, and his closing performance evokes intense sorrow and acceptance.
I wish I had watched In the Valley of Elah on the big screen. It would surely have ranked within my top films of 2008.