The failure to avoid pat answers and cheap grandstanding dogs Haggis here as surely as it did in the overrated Crash, and robs In the Valley of Elah of much of its power.
1 Comment
09/21/07
In the Valley of Elah (2007)
72
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:150
Fresh:108
Rotten:42
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: Though some of Paul Haggis's themes are heavy-handed, In the Valley of Elah is otherwise an engrossing murder mystery and antiwar statement, featuring a mesmerizing performance from Tommy Lee Jones.
Theatrical Release:25-01-2008
Synopsis: Tommy Lee Jones plays Hank Deerfield, a retired military man investigating the mysterious disappearance of his soldier son, Mike, in this somber mystery-drama from director Paul Haggis (CRASH).... [More]
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Frances Fisher, Susan Sarandon
Director: Paul Haggis
Reviews for In the Valley of Elah
It's not just that Haggis has cast fine actors, but that he has created a mood and pace that makes the actors, the story and the themes of the film mesh.
09/21/07
In the Valley of Elah offers a fine example of a mutually beneficial pairing of filmmaker and actor. Director and co-screenwriter Paul Haggis gives Tommy Lee Jones a great role. In exchange, Jones supplies Haggis with nuance.
09/21/07
In the Valley of Elah is another in a long line of great Tommy Lee Jones performances.
09/21/07
With In the Valley of Elah writer-director Paul Haggis provides a story filled with depth, nuance, feeling, power and, for the most part, restraint.
09/21/07
For all its dead ends and flaws, In The Valley of Elah does feature arguably the best performance of Jones' career. And the anger that simmers in Haggis' direction is palpable, even minus a payoff.
09/21/07
[Haggis'] self-serious tone becomes wearisome, and he fails to explore how the military failed its men while clumsily laying a guilt trip at its feet.
09/21/07
An involving character piece and mystery/thriller, albeit a tad slow.
09/21/07
There should be enough gut-troubling truth to In the Valley of Elah to make it transcend political squabbling.
09/21/07
Tommy Lee Jones gives such an amazingly nuanced, judicious, soulful and selfless performance as a military man distraught over the death of his soldier son in In the Valley of Elah that one can only wish it was in a movie that had the same virtues.
09/21/07
In the Valley of Elah is an endorsement of doubt, a demand for questioning, wrapped in a package anyone can buy.
09/21/07
The movie Haggis made and the movie Elah could have been are as far apart as Washington, D.C., and Baghdad.
09/21/07
In the Valley of Elah is too inept and diffuse to be a howl against the war in Iraq. At best, it is a manly whimper.
09/21/07
Instead of a nice, clean movie about parental regret we’re forced to suffer through an unnecessary biblical metaphor stretched way past its limits of applicability.
09/21/07
Haggis' movie is worth seeing mainly for Tommy Lee Jones' stoically pinched and intensely focused performance as Hank Deerfield, the Lanny Davis figure.
09/21/07
Haggis' premise becomes confused; he inadvertently seems to suggest that this war is wrong not because it was unjustified but because of its corrupting influence on its participants.
09/21/07
The movie wears each of (its) hot-button issues as casually as a runway model might sport the latest Hermes scarf. The topics are brought up, shown off and then, in most cases, replaced with something else.
09/21/07
Paul Haggis' earnest and eloquent film about the impact of the war in Iraq on U.S. soldiers, and by extension, their nation, is human-scaled. And as deep and harrowed as Jones' crevassed face.
09/21/07
In his first solo outing since the Oscar-winning Crash, writer-director Paul Haggis falls into a familiar trap, where his lofty social theme fights its own battle against the forces of artifice and contrivance.
09/21/07
It's a difficult picture dealing directly with misery and misfortune, but it has much to say about affairs of the family and the state of the union, presented in an unsettlingly peaceful manner few in the genre would dare emulate.
09/21/07
Latest News for In the Valley of Elah
February 18, 2008:
RT on DVD: Cram For The Oscars With Michael Clayton, In The Valley of Elah, And More Out This Week
Ready those Oscar ballots! With the Academy Awards around the corner, it's time to start catching up on what you missed in theaters. Snap up this week's offerings for... More...
January 24, 2008:
Director Paul Haggis on In the Valley of Elah: The RT Interview
We sit down with the Crash director and Bond scribe to find out more about his political latest, In the Valley of Elah. More...
January 10, 2008:
Amy Ryan and Greg Kinnear Join Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon in the Green Zone
"Making a movie about the war in Iraq" is quickly turning into just another way of saying "losing tons of money at the box office," but director Paul Greengrass isn't letting... More...
December 14, 2007:
Atonement, Control Lead London Film Critics Noms
The London Critics Circle has announced the nominees for its year-end awards, with Anton Corbijn's Control and Joe Wright's Atonement leading the pack at eight nominations apiece. More...
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