IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH - Blu-ray review

Paul Haggis' directorial follow-up to his award winning film "Crash" is the crime drama "In the Valley of Elah." Haggis has churned out a number of successful screenplays since 2004's "Million Dollar Baby" and has worked directly with Clint Eastwood in crafting screenplays for the two films centered on Iwo Jima and helped craft the two screenplays for the Daniel Craig era James Bond films. While he is in demand as a screenplay writer, Haggis is showing he is a talented director as both "Crash" and "In the Valley of Elah" are masterful examples of storytelling that are intelligent films and contain solid performances from their lead actors.

Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon headline Haggis' latest film. Tommy Lee Jones brings along his familiar surly act to the role of Hank Deerfield and while we have seen Jones use a similar demeanor before in the films "The Fugitive," "Volcano" and "Men In Black," the rough and gruff character that Jones can conjure works beautifully in this film and it is always a joy to watch Jones portray the confident and crotchety man. Sooner or later Jones will star in a film where he will finally get to yell at kids to get off of his lawn. In the film, Jones routinely barks commands in a familiar manner that always deserves applause. His character says the kind of things many of us would love to say.

Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron are two talented actresses. Theron is a gorgeous woman who has come a long way since "2 Days in the Valley" to prove herself a capable and talented actress. It is hard work for a woman to succeed in Hollywood to the degree she has and she brings this struggle to her role as Detective Emily Sanders, a woman who is ridiculed by her fellow police officers who believe that she earned her detectives badge solely by sleeping with police chief Buchwald (Josh Brolin). Theron brings intelligence to her performance and holds her own rather nicely against Jones, an actor who routinely delivers a powerful performance. Sarandon has a lesser role as Hank Deerfield's wife Joan, but her performance as a heartbroken and frustrated housewife is nothing short of brilliant.

The essential plot of the film is that Hank Deerfield discovers that his son Michael (Jonathan Tucker) has went absent without leave from the military. Hank is a retired Sergeant who was a member of the military police. He leaves his homelife to find his son and leaves Joan behind. However, when he arrives, he finds the police not willing to help locate his missing son and he neither believes the military police or detective Emily Sanders is competent enough to find his boy. Things take a horrible turn for the worse when Michael's body is found and Deerfield must uncover who the murderer of his son was and the reasoning for the murder. After some bureaucratic fumbling, Emily becomes lead detective on the case and must work with Hank to uncover the truths behind the gut-wrenching murder.

"In the Valley of Elah" starts of slow it takes a little time for the film to finally take off. The beginning of the film is a little shaky as Theron and Sarandon are not given much screen time and the film must rest only on a hopeful Hank Deerfield's shoulders as he hopes to find his son. However, once hope is lost and Deerfield's surly demeanor and desperate situation allows Tommy Lee Jones to do what he does best, the film starts to move along nicely. Until it is revealed that Michael has been murdered and the reveal is both gruesome and disconcerting, "In the Valley of Elah" feels like a very slow episode of "CSI." Once the movie allows itself to be the well-acted drama it is, "In the Valley of Elah" is entertaining.

It is a good thing that "In the Valley of Elah" has as many strong actors as it does, as the film suffers greatly from technical details and investigative techniques to make it a proper crime drama. Everything from the technology shown to the techniques used is either thin or uninteresting. For instance, common cell phones cannot record or encode video at the length and resolution shown in the film. I won't even get into the technology in recovering the data or transmitting it to the network connection in a small town motel with much speed. A single conversation about the remains of Michael Deerfield is the only in-depth discussion of actual investigative techniques and if you were expecting "In the Valley of Elah" to be a provocative and deep exercise in investigation; you will be disappointed.

Thankfully, the actors rise to the occasion and even though it lacks in details, the story of "In the Valley of Elah" is strong and interesting. The film takes a look at the psychological effect that war has on the young warriors that are thrust into a hectic and deadly situation and how it shapes their attitudes and actions. The film looks at the flaws injected into the character of Michael and how he is no longer the model son of loving parents, but a monster of a man who falls prey to prostitution, drugs and physical violence. Of course, some will argue that "In the Valley of Elah" is making an anti-war statement by painting such ugly portraits of the young veterans of the Gulf Wars. It definitely does not leave us feeling warm and fuzzy about Army veterans.

I am not going to delve into Haggis' opinions or war and its soldiers. I served in the United States Army as an Infantryman during the first Gulf War and although I did not step onto foreign soil, I have different views than somebody who wasn't involved in the horrors of war. The war didn't last long enough for my own deployment, but I had friends and fellow servicemen take part in the war and I could write a long dissertation on what I have known and experienced. I will say that Haggis does make a good point about the travesties and ugliness of war and how it can misshape the mind of those that take part in such a conflict. This subject matter is a major point of "In the Valley of Elah" and I will leave it at that.

Once the credits rolled, I found myself entertained and easily saw why Tommy Lee Jones earned an Oscar nomination for his performance. At the time of writing this review, the Oscar was handed out to Daniel Day Lewis and while I think Jones' performance wasn't as strong as Lewis', it was a solid performance for the veteran actor. The slow reveal of what happened to Michael Deerfield worked nicely and the steps taken to unravel the mystery were sure steps, but I do feel the film stumbled when the man responsible for the murder of the youngest Deerfield was revealed. It wasn't a bad ending, but "In the Valley of Elah" is one of those movies that doesn't begin or end particularly well, but what is in the middle is strong enough to easily keep one captivated.

Video:

Warner Bros. presents "In the Valley of Elah" in a detailed and colorful looking Blu-ray disc. The film is mastered with Microsoft's VC-1 codec and shown at 2.4:1 with the full 1080p resolution available. Detail in "In the Valley of Elah" is strong. The weathered and aged face of Tommy Lee Jones shows all of its flaws and the perfect complexion of Charlize Theron is on display for all to see. The film does possess a minor sheen of film grain throughout its running length due to the method of cinematography, but the film is strong in the detail department. Coloring is altered stylistically and the palette exhibits desaturated colors that are overblown in contrast. Whites are overly bright and skin tones are lighter than natural with the contrasting of the film. The source materials used to bring the film onto Blu-ray are clean and no digital flaws are present to mar the picture. Paul Haggis didn't intend "In the Valley of Elah" to compete with the overprocessed and polished films churned out today. He wanted a picture that had less of an emphasis on visuals and more on the story and this is apparent with the visual presentation of the film.

Sound:

Four language tracks are provided for "In the Valley of Elah." Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is supported for English, French and Spanish languages. However, the English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix is the recommended way to watch this film and while the movie is front-heavy in its soundtrack, the mix is clear. There are moments when sound is permitted to bleed to the rear channels, but so much of "In the Valley of Elah" is dialogue-centric that the soundtrack isn't given a lot of room to impress. Even scenes that take place in noisy dance clubs and strip bars do not push the envelope much. The .1 LFE channel comes to life very rarely. This is simply a thin sounding film because of limited opportunity and for long stretches of time; the film sounds more like a very clean stereo soundtrack. Dialogue is very clean, but this isn't a movie to show off one's home theater rig and the TrueHD format.

Extras:

Two supplements are provided for "In the Valley of Elah." Under "Behind the Story," the In the Valley of Elah: Documentary is broken down into two parts. In the Valley of Elah: After Irag (27:41) spends a little time with its supporting cast as they receive military training to learn to be proper soldiers with military advisor Jim Dever. The documentary talks to Paul Haggis as he discusses how he wanted the military aspect of the film to be believable and accurate. This was interesting, but having went through 11B basic training, I wasn't too impressed with the military aspect of it. The second half, In the Valley of Elah: Coming Home (15:24) looks at post-traumatic stress disorder and how this concept worked its way into the film. This too wasn't a bad little video documentary and worked well with the first half of the making of documentary. I enjoyed the fact this wasn't a cookie-cutter documentary as so many others were.

The Additional Scene (7:51) is the final supplement on the Blu-ray disc and looks at Hank looking around for more information on his lost son and not realizing that Jennifer Lopez being his son's girlfriend was and worked to fit a little pop culture humor with the sad realization that Lopez is a girl that actually exists, but is a multiple amputee. This additional subplot does add a little to the story, but it doesn't quite fit the film and only feels like something purposely created to guilt the audience with feeling bad about laughing at Tommy Lee Jones trying to find Jennifer Lopez. The additional collection of scenes that form this subplot are good to watch, but they deserved to be cut.

Closing Comments:

I enjoyed "In the Valley of Elah" and applaud Tommy Lee Jones for another masterful acting job. The film isn't the ensemble masterpiece that was Haggis' previous film "Crash," but it is a thought provoking piece that looks into the controversial topic of how war shapes and forms young impressionable minds and gives fuel to the fires of those who are anti-war in beliefs. I won't say this is an anti-war film, as it does raise serious issues and has the audience look more at the soldiers than the conflict in which they fought. The story begins and ends in a manner that isn't as strong as what comes between the opening and closing titles, but Jones, Theron and Sarandon make up for the film's shortcomings. "In the Valley of Elah" is not a picture to flaunt for technology and while the Blu-ray title is technically sound, it doesn't offer up particularly strong visuals and sound because of the filmmaker's stylistic choices. Jones fans will want to take note of this film, but for others it might be a tougher sell.