Review of In the Valley of Elah (2007) by Matthew B — 05 Nov 2008

The best movie and role I've seen Tommy Lee Jones in since "The Fugitive". He sort of plays the same character in this movie as he did in "The Fugitive", only he's a soldier that has since retired and now hauls gravel :P this time around, with no apparent police experience or training YET he seems to be a lot more observant and intelligent than those doing any investigative work in the film, which is where the comparison to his other character comes in.

The one emotion that Tommy Lee Jones expresses in this movie is ANGER! The bastard is completely stone-faced the whole movie except when he's mad. Not a single smile or frown to be seen; nothing but anger. It works, as the man was a soldier and soldiers aren't a textbook example of someone you would see expressing some emotion here and there.

"In the Valley of Elah" has a pretty good premise, as its about a man who's son has gone 'AWOL' after coming back from a tour of duty in Iraq in the American military. There was atleast another film that had a similar premise as this that came out within a couple years which I didn't see, but looking at the other one ("Stop/Loss") after having seen this movie, I doubt it could be any better than what "In the Valley of Elah" has to offer. Also, the title of the movie doesn't exactly relate to the film (The valley of Elah is apparently where David fought Goliath... The only thing that would be like that in this movie would be Tommy Lee Jones' character's son going to Iraq, facing his fear, and staying there until the end of his tour) that well, and could have easily been named some better.

I didn't notice how well the camera work was, as I was too busy focusing on every little aspect of each character (and the version I watched was fullscreen >< Damn Movie Network :() and their movements because there's a lot of body language being thrown around - unlike in a lot of movies. The casting was okay... the movie could have been cheaper if they got rid of 2 of the actors they had (1 was Jones' character's son's actor, and the other would be James Franco) as they were used for a maximum of 2-4 minutes each, and probably got paid $2-10 million for doing so. The editing was fine, as was the directing, but there were a couple throw-away scenes that could have easily not have been included and it would have kept the film the same, and shorter - which would be beneficial as the movie seemed a little too long for the story being told.

Holy shit is there some serious monsters in this movie! *SPOILERS* The guy who killed Tommy Lee Jones' character's son at the end... holy fuck. Him: "...then I looked down and I was stabbing him." Charlize Theron: "and then what?" Him: "Then [one of the other guys, hereto now on be referrenced as 1] and [2] help me drag him into the bushes. [1]'s father was a butcher, so he knew how to cut the body up well at the joints of the wrists and head. We then burned the body and left to the Chicken Shack, as we were straving as we hadn't eaten all day and after we ate we returned to the base". <--- He said that completely as if he had done nothing wrong, like you'd say if you were talking to a friend about going to a movie or something ><. That was just some hardcore stuff.

Ooooooh, and Jones' character's son running down a child instead of slowing down a little and going around him? Blah. Taking a picture of the child after running him down at top speed? Some more hardcore shit.*/SPOILERS & REVIEW*.