IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH HOLDS SADNESS AND GRIM REALITYThis movie was inspired by true events, which makes it all the more difficult to stomach. Tommy Lee Jones is Retired Sergeant Hank Deerfield, who has been notified that his son, also a service man, has gone AWOL after returning from Iraq. Deerfield leaves his wife, Joan (Susan Sarandon) and drives to the base where his son was last seen to find out what happened. This film is one of, if not THE best work of Tommy Lee Jones to date. Little by little, we are let into his mind and he proves to be sharp and skilled at seeing the items that both local law enforcement and the military police either don't see or are covering up. He finds an unlikely source of information from the new detective, Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) who is able to bust through the good-old-boys network and gives the case the energy and commitment that it deserves. The whole cast is outstanding; not a bad performance in the bunch. At first I thought that casting Sarandon was a waste, but she owned ever scene she had down to the second. Theron was able to present that combination of naivete, hunger to prove herself and the fear or what she is doing. Note: Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin are both in this and No Country For Old Men. Small world.
PICK: Outstanding work by the whole cast honor the life of the man this was based on.
