In the Valley of Elah

Aroview: Calculated military mystery from the director of CRASH, concerning an out-of-touch dad (Jones) searching for his missing son who has gone AWOL after serving in Iraq.

Gorgeously shot and featuring another superbly nuanced performance from the furrowed face of Tommy Lee Jones, this simmering indictment of American military intervention and bureaucratic barriers frequently strikes a nerve, especially when foregrounding the sobering domestic consequences of war. Occasionally undermined by dir. Haggis’s overwrought symbolism and told-you-so sanctimony, but all-in-all a well-executed mystery worth watching for Jones alone.

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