The Washington Times
  • Subscribe
  • Times News Services
  • RSS
  • Mobile Headlines
  • e-edition
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • REGISTER
  • LOG IN
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • WELCOME
  • Your Profile
  • Log Out
  • Front Page Image
  • Classifieds
  • Autos
  • Real Estate
  • Jobs
  • Special Sections
  • Customer Service
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Sports
    • NFL
    • NBA/WNBA
    • MLB
    • NHL
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Motorsports
    • Soccer
    • NCAA
    • Olympics
    • Outdoors
    • Other
  • Culture
    • Home & Living
    • Family & Kids
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Washington Visitors
    • Books
    • Military History
    • Life
    • Auto
    • TV Listings
    • Movie Listings
    • Death Notices
    • Entertainment
  • Themes
  • Communities
  • Marketplace
    • Autos
    • Jobs
    • Real Estate
    • Classifieds
    • Shopping
    • Dining Out
    • Education
    • TWT Store
  • Videos
    • Two Guys
    • Birnbaum on Washington
    • Liz Glover
    • Amanda Carpenter
    • Morning Briefing
    • Documentaries
    • Joe Giganti
    • Video Game Minute
  • Podcasts
    • About Headlines
    • Audio and Radio
    • America's Morning News
  • World

    Stalled talks may kill Israel's Labor Party

  • Politics

    Bill Clinton urges Dems to pass health bill

  • Security

    Obama: No religious faith justifies Fort Hood shootings

  • Local

    Families meet as sniper's execution nears

  • Politics

    EXCLUSIVE: Warner: Obama misplayed health care debate

  • National

    Justices weigh juveniles' life without parole

  • National

    Leadership changes at The Times

Home » News » Entertainment

Friday, September 14, 2007

Where are the heroes?

Rate this story

Average 0.00
after 0 votes
Login or register to rate this story

  • Font Size -+
  • Print
  • Email
  • Comment
  • Tweet this!
  • Share
  • Article
  • Comments ()
  • Click-2-Listen
  • Videos

More Entertainment Stories

  • Green & Glover: 'Bobby's' girl
  • Recession imagery captured in exhibit
  • Taking names
  • Tuning in to TV

By

With Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah," the fall season of heavy-hitting Oscar contenders officially begins.

Mr. Haggis wrote two of the last three best-picture winners ("Million Dollar Baby" and "Crash") and directed one ("Crash"). His new film, inspired by a true story, stars three Oscar winners. And it takes on a big and timely topic, the war in Iraq.

With the stars so aligned, you could hardly go wrong, and for the first two-thirds, this film goes very well indeed. However, Mr. Haggis seems so intent on restraining his own antiwar views to make a nonpartisan, emotional rather than polemical film that his work falls apart in the last act.

Tommy Lee Jones is Hank Deerfield, a retired Army sergeant who hauls gravel for a living. His quiet, well-ordered life is disturbed when a call from Fort Rudd informs him that his son is about to be reported AWOL; Mike (Jonathan Tucker) disappeared as soon as his platoon returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.

Hank gets into his truck to drive down to New Mexico almost immediately, leaving his wife, Joan (Susan Sarandon) behind: If, as they suspect, their boy's off celebrating, he surely won't want his mom to be the one to find him.

In fact, it's the police who finally do: The charred remains of the soldier are discovered by a crew including Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron). The site is on the border between the town and the base, and it's unclear under whose jurisdiction the murder falls. The cops are only too happy to let the Military Police take a homicide off their hands, but Emily fights for the case, driven by Hank's pleas, the desire to prove herself in a misogynistic department and her guilt over another military case that ended badly.

At the heart of "In the Valley of Elah" are two mysteries, but the important one isn't the obvious one. The investigation is relatively routine, with the older man showing the younger woman the witnesses she has forgotten to question, the clues she has been too careless to see. Yet it's utterly compelling because of Mr. Jones' intensity and, even more important, the idea that there's a mystery here much bigger than one man.

Hank surreptitiously takes his son's cell phone from the barracks and gets a data miner to send him videos that remain on the heat-damaged mobile. It's clear that very bad things happened in Iraq, and what Hank sees will test the veteran's faith in both his families, biological and military.

Mr. Jones is at his minimalist best here. The film is his, with the camera often focusing on his hard, taut face as he comes to grips with the same knowledge the entire country is still struggling to understand.

Mr. Haggis has assembled a fine supporting cast. Jake McLaughlin, playing one of Mike's fellow troops, makes a promising debut here, perhaps because he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for his own service in Iraq.

12Next »

Post a comment

There are comments on this article, submit your opinion!

Please login or register to post a comment

Ask a Question

You Report

Do you have another point of view, photos, audio, video or more information about a story?

Top Stories

Most Read

  1. KELLNER: New Apple mouse really is 'Magic'
  2. EXCLUSIVE: Warner: Obama misplayed health care debate
  3. EXCLUSIVE: Rare virus poses new threat to troops
  4. Parents buying homes for kids at college
  5. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
More Top Stories »
  1. PRUDEN: Fatal reluctance to see evil
  2. Families meet as sniper's execution nears
  3. Deer dies after leap into D.C. zoo lion exhibit
  4. Federal Reserve opposed as big bank savior by odd allies
  5. Court refuses to halt sniper's execution

Most Shared

  1. PRUDEN: Fatal reluctance to see evil
  2. KELLNER: New Apple mouse really is 'Magic'
  3. Defense nominee won't reveal potential conflicts
  4. 'Fuzzy math' could drive health bill cost higher
  5. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
More Top Stories »
  1. The siren call of Shariah
  2. EXCLUSIVE: Rare virus poses new threat to troops
  3. Parents buying homes for kids at college
  4. Deer dies after leap into D.C. zoo lion exhibit
  5. Sinking dollar fuels new gold rush

Most Commented

  1. PRUDEN: Fatal reluctance to see evil
  2. 'Fuzzy math' could drive health bill cost higher
  3. Defense nominee won't reveal potential conflicts
  4. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
  5. Lieberman vows probe of Hood rampage
More Top Stories »
  1. Jihadists in the military
  2. Health bill faces roadblocks in Senate
  3. 'Anti-vaccine' attitude hampers H1N1 effort
  4. Hood suspect earlier came under FBI scrutiny
  5. EDITORIAL: Mr. Obama, stay away from this wall

Listen to Washington Times Radio

  • America's Morning News

    with John McCaslin and Melanie Morgan

Question of the day

D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad is scheduled to die by lethal injection tonight. Do you believe in the death penalty?

Blogs & Columns

  • POTUS Notes

    New Dem talking point on Obama approval doesn't wash

  • The Back Story

    12 arrested at Pelosi's office

  • Belief Blog

    New Vatican constitution released

  • Out of Context

    Foods that might kill libido

  • Technology

    Facebook wins round against phishing spammer

  • On the Fly

    United lifts some 'award' blocking

  • Redskins 360

    Hall, Portis on radio

  • Tara's Two Cents

    On their way to summer vacation..

  • SNOBlog

    Beyond 'Woody'

Videos

Advertising Links
TWT Store
  • e-edition
  • Print Edition
  • Weekly Washington Times
TWT Affiliates
  • Middle East Times
  • Golf
  • UPI
  • Arbor Ballroom
  • Washington Times Global
  • About TWT
  • Press Room
  • F.A.Q.
  • Work for TWT
  • Advertise
  • Sponsors
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

All site contents © Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC.