 Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron; Directed by Paul Haggis
Goliath fell in the Valley of Elah; a minor yet significant
note in this resonant thriller from the director of Crash. Paul Haggis is not the retiring type, and fills his riveting
drama with a tangible sense of fear and grief.
A forthright military father, Hank Deerfield, demands
answers about his dead son. As he approaches the truth, he exposes the
distressing fallout from America’s War on Terror; a psychological malaise with
unmeasurable consequences.
Clues to murder are hidden in damaged video on his boy’s
mobile phone. Not only does it drive the narrative, but Haggis uses the footage
to link past and present, father and son, media and reality in a tense, often
unpalatable, confrontation. Chaotic, almost meaningless fragments speak of
corrupted men and the fuzzy, disconnected circumstances of their world. It’s a
brilliant motif.
Most significantly, Haggis shows no concern at being thought
unpatriotic, and his film is stronger for it. As The Guardian noted, The
Valley of Elah marks a new low in relationships between Hollywood and the
outgoing President – a view immortalised in the near-blasphemous closing shot.
It is the best of many good reasons to see a film where barely a moment doesn’t
ring entirely, unbearably true.
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