In the Valley of Elah

[roddglenn]

I watched In the Valley of Elah the other night.

 

Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon find out that their son has gone AWOL (absent without leave) from the army shortly after returning home from a tour of duty in Iraq. The story weaves an intricate web of mystery around this basic premise and keeps you guessing all the way through and makes excellent use of garbled video clips found on the son's mobile phone.

 

I drew some similarities with No Country for Old Men, not just in both films having some of the same cast (Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Barry Corbin). The film had a similar quiet brooding about it and also used minimal use of music throughout (although obviously more than No Country which only had end credits music). Jones played a similar character too, quiet, knowledgeable, authoritative, sad and quite lonely (despite being married to Susan Sarandon). His acting was as always impeccable - standout scenes were talking on the phone to Sarandon and having to tell her about their son and also his two visits to the morgue -one on his own and the second time with Sarandon. Sarandon gave a solid performance too, along with Charlize Theron and the rest of the supporting cast (including Jason Patric, James Franco and those already mentioned).

 

Overall an excellent film and one for the collection.