At the Movies

"In the Valley of Elah"

In the Valley of Elah ****

It may seem like a cynical perspective, but storytelling is hardly alive and well in the annals of contemporary cinema. This is particularly true amongst mainstream Hollywood fare, a world in which marketing and demographics are elevated over the whimsy and power of art.

With moving screenplays such as Million Dollar Baby and the Oscar-winning Crash among his credits, Paul Haggis is one of the industry’s few genuine bright lights. And as In the Valley of Elah rather emphatically demonstrates, Haggis is one of filmdom’s greatest working storytellers.

In the Valley of Elah stars Tommy Lee Jones as Hank Deerfield, a Vietnam vet who makes his living hauling gravel in a tiny Tennessee town. Hank’s world is torn asunder when he learns that his son Mike (Jonathan Tucker) has been missing since his infantry unit returned from its Iraqi tour of duty only scant days earlier.

Barely missing a beat, Hank hops into his truck and drives to New Mexico’s Fort Rudd, where his son’s outfit resides stateside. “It’s a two-day drive,” his wife Joan (Susan Sarandon) protests. “Not the way I’ll drive it,” Hank tells her.

With his resolve in overdrive, Hank arrives in New Mexico looking for answers, yet all he discovers are more and more questions. Why did his son leave the base? Why are the other soldiers in his unit so evasive? And what about all of those mysterious, pixilated images from war-torn Iraq on Mike’s cell phone?

At this juncture, In the Valley of Elah transforms into a top-drawer police procedural. Hank must negotiate a narrow path between military justice, as embodied by dispassionate Lieutenant Kirklander (Jason Patric), and local law enforcement, led by Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron), who has become jaded by sameness and the heartlessness of crime.

With Haggis’s careful, deliberate pacing and a masterful acting turn by Jones, In the Valley of Elah is a triumph of filmmaking and—dare I say it?—storytelling. There are moments of searing pain modulated by images of ethereal beauty and quietude. All the while, Haggis deftly captures our imaginations and keeps us guessing until the very last frame about what lurks in the nooks and crannies of his screenplay. With Jones turning in one of the finest performances of his career, it’s truly a wonder to behold.

In the Valley of Elah is one of the year’s best films.