In the Valley of Elah, a Review

From the New York Times:

"Viewed from one angle — straight on, from the ground level of its busy plot — “In the Valley of Elah” might be mistaken for a tidy crime procedural. A retired military police officer named Hank Deerfield (played by Tommy Lee Jones with his usual brisk, gruff economy) learns that his son Mike (Jonathan Tucker), an Army specialist recently returned from Iraq, has gone AWOL from his base in New Mexico.

Before long, the young man’s charred and dismembered remains are found in the desert, and Hank joins Emily Sanders, a local detective played by Charlie Theron, in trying to figure out who could have done such a terrible thing to his boy...

While “In the Valley of Elah” has its share of overreaching and throat clearing — including clumsy references to the biblical story of David and Goliath, the source of its title — it is mostly free of moral grandstanding. (A brief scene in which Hank gives voice to some of his half-buried ethnic bigotry is more credible than any of the similar moments that make up most of “Crash.”)

Not that the message of “In the Valley of Elah” is ambiguous or unclear. The message is that the war in Iraq has damaged this country in ways we have only begun to grasp."

The daddy thinks this DVD is worth seeing. To read the full review, go to the New York Times.