Watch In the Valley of Elah For Free

The Worst Film Ever

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

You're almost guaranteed a great movie if TLJ is in it. This one didn't disappoint when I watched it last night, over 10 years after it was first released. There's something about him that no-one else has in his ability to portray emotion, when he cries you cry , it's as simple as that. Susan Sarandon is just as good as his loving wife and is so totally immersed in the part that it's hard to believe she's only acting.The movie itself is full of pulsating grief laid out against the heartlessness and cynicism that comes from being a long serving cop. It's a tough menu to pull these feelings together but the director does a fabulous job and the actors play it all to a tee.The director also does a fabulous job of layering the New Mexico scenery and the military culture into the story, it's just magic stuff. Menace and beauty all in the same scene. Can't finish this review without a mention of Josh Brolin, he doesn't figure a lot in this movie but the parts he's in crackle with his talent. One of my favourite actorsIt's a wonderful movie, even after all this time.

In the Valley of Elah is a poignant film that deadpans its way to impact you. The cast list shows many people in the film, but in reality, this is a duet with Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron, with some cameos by Jason Patric as the military agent, and Susan Sarandon as the mother. TL Jones is ex military all the way, and he EXUDEs ex-military in his demeanor, his talk, and his habits. He was also an MP, so he knows how to go about an investigation. His youngest son Mike was in the middle east and has returned home. Suddenly they receive a call that Mike is AWOL if he does not show up by the end of the weekend.Jones drives all night to the town where Mike's base is, and starts a search. He figures Mike is letting off some steam. What happens next shakes him, and his relationship with is wife, to its core. Jones maintains his military demeanor, while inside he's being ripped apart.This is a tour de force performance from Tommy Lee Jones, for which he received a nomination for an Academy award as best actor, along with a slew of other nominations. You can tell he loves his son deeply, but that he understands the stresses of the military. His emotions show that yep, perhaps he did stuff his son did. And sadly, maybe he even went down other paths that he just won't talk about to anyone. This film is a monument to the often silent love and respect between a father and a son, no matter what happens. It was fantastic to see this played out with such depth and economy of acting. Equally excellent was Charlize Theron. For once she was not pimped out to exude her womanhood. In fact, she was made to look like a regular person, which allowed her acting skills to pour out because she wasn't trying to look cool or act cool. She was just trying to act the part. She played the police officer who has no respect from her fellow male officers who constantly taunt or joke on her. Until she shows them how smart she really is. And later shows them how far ahead of them she read tragic events that they laughed at her for. As a single mother, she's reliving almost the young Mike of TL Jones, and learning about the bond between a mother and her son, and how that too is important. The father being gone it seems.In the Valley of Elah is not quick paced. There's not a lot the happens. The story is even pretty simple. But the acting, wow, it's terrific. Susan Sarandon as the mother hits all the right notes too. I won't rate this a must-see, but it's pretty darn good if you want a film that examines the complicated combination of the military mixed with a father/son relationship that gets strained, but never broken, and eventually, albeit sadly, uplifted. Enjoy.

That's there is to it. The story, despite putting the tag of being based of true events, really puts too much weight on the dramatization and the flow of the storytelling. It really contains the classic ingredients for a detective movie, the mysterious disappearance, the eventually body found, the different suspects and motives, the leads that instead send the main characters off track, and the classic moment when main characters just find out the truth, the perpetrators, who have been there all along, just admit the crime. These things thus do not really add anything to the movie's offering. The mood also doesn't differ from what we see in The General's Daughter (1999) or A Few Good Men (1992). The acting overall s quite nice. Tommy Lee Jones seems like he never acted any other kind of character besides the often calm yet hard-boiled senior. Charlize Theron made her role here rise from an undermined woman to someone the investigation depends upon.

I'm nearly 60 so I'll shoot from the hip on this one. This is a film for adults. Its a film for people who've been through life and its experiences, who've been through wars, and who know a bit about human nature.Its slow, painstaking and often painful. Its realistic, sometimes horribly so. And yet its one of the most thoughtful and intelligent films of recent years. Its not for the whiz kid or the whoopee brigade. But it should be shown at every high school and military academy. At least give the kids some idea of what another reality in the world can be like if adults mess up, when adults mess up.Tommy Lee Jones is superb. Susan Sarandon is exceptional in the restrained playing of her supporting role. Charlize Theron complements TLJ very nicely. But its his movie. Its what he's best at, taking command and getting the job done with a gruff but real sympathy and humanity. I'll be really sorry when he retires.Its easily a 10. I won't say more. I'll let the film speak for itself.