TOMMY Lee Jones is at the top of his game as a grieving fa ther determined to uncover the disturbing truth behind his soldier son’s death in Paul Haggis’ “In the Valley of Elah.”
Haggis’ timely and devastating follow-up to the Oscar-winning “Crash” is a fact-inspired story about Hank (Jones), a tough Tennessee trucker whose son goes missing shortly after his return from a tour in Iraq.
Hank is already running into bureaucratic resistance to his questions at the son’s home base in Albuquerque when burned body parts turn up on military property.
The local authorities are more than happy to turn over jurisdiction to the military cops, who suggest it looks like a drug deal gone bad.
But even in his grief, Hank is not one to accept easy answers.
He uses his skills as a former military policeman in Vietnam to persuade police detective Emily (a deglamorized and virtually unrecognizable Charlize Theron) that his son (Jonathan Tucker, seen in flashbacks) was killed outside military jurisdiction – and then dragged over the line and dismembered.
But Emily runs into a stone wall at the base. For political reasons, the investigating officers (Jason Patric and James Franco) seem to have little interest in getting to the bottom of the case.
It’s up to the oddly matched team of Hank and Emily to run down the suspects, which include several members of the son’s unit.
Along the way, this taut police procedural subtly and respectfully raises disturbing questions about the emotional scars U.S. soldiers are suffering from the Iraq conflict.
Eloquently photographed by Roger Deakins, the film alternates between bleak Southwestern vistas and disturbing flashbacks set in Iraq.
The title refers to the setting of the biblical story of David and Goliath, which Hank relates to single mom Emily’s son (Devin Brochu) one night at bedtime.
Theron is very good as a woman struggling for respect in a sexist environment. There are also small but telling performances by Susan Sarandon as Hank’s worried wife, and Frances Fisher as a topless bartender who aids in the investigation.
But the film’s center is the Oscar-caliber performance of Jones, whose world-weary Hank (who previously lost another son in a military accident) experiences a full spectrum of frustration, anguish, bravado, horror – and finally remorse.
I had some reservations about the overpraised “Crash,” which tended to wear its heart on its sleeve. Despite a seriously misconceived final scene, “In the Valley of Elah” is a far more mature and nuanced piece of filmmaking.
Interview with Paul Haggis at nypost.com
IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH
*** 1/2
Mr. Jones goes to war.
Running time: 121 minutes. Rated R (violent and disturbing images, profanity, nudity). At the Lincoln Square and the Union Square.