“In the Valley of Elah” rests entirely in the hands of Tommy Lee Jones.
Recognizing that the success of the film would depend on handing Jones control,
director Paul Haggis becomes a support system for his lead actor. The result is
a grim but powerful film about a father in search of his son, a regular Army
soldier who has gone AWOL after a stint in Iraq.
Nothing in
this movie speeds up beyond the personality and character of Hank Deerfield (Mr.
Jones). Everything he says and does is measured and deliberate; every detail of
his life is considered. As a sergeant in Vietnam he learned the intricacies of
deduction and observation. We realize that once this man sets his mind to his
search, he will not stop short of finding his son.
When the
phone call comes, Hank packs a small bag and leaves for Mike’s army base.
Checking into a cheap motel behind a gas station, he settles in for the
duration. When a body is found, Hank will face both the disinterest of the local
police and stonewalling by the Army. An ordinary man trying to pierce a cover-up
needs both persistence and luck. Hank has plenty of the first, and the luck
comes in the form of Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) who slowly begins
to understand that Hank is being brushed off.
Everything
about this movie is right. The main characters – because each actor is a major
talent – have caught the rhythm of the movie and never violate it. They
literally blend into the landscape that contains their lives. The relationship
between Hank and his wife Joan (Susan Sarandon) unfolds for the most part on the
telephone in a painful portrait of a marriage of cool distance. This woman will
suffer alone, and so will her husband. Susan Sarandon is wonderful as the woman
who shares life with a man who lives in silence. Charlize Theron is just right
as the detective who responds with innate decency to help a man at the bottom of
his life. She periodically explodes her way past the bureaucrats to open the
door for the restrained but furious father.
And then
there’s Tommy Lee Jones. Whether he is calmly explaining a discovery, or
patiently holding his ground in a police waiting room, he has made himself small
and ordinary in the face of bureaucracy. How do we get to know him? Watch the
scene in the Laundromat where, sitting in his undershirt, he spots Emily
approaching and grabs a damp shirt from the dryer. He will dress with proper
respect. Watch him make his bed with military precision in the motel. And listen
carefully to possibly the sweetest bedtime story every filmed – by Hank to
Emily’s son David. In just two hours we know Hank is uncomfortable, vulnerable,
honest, precise, unrelenting and possessed of a will of iron. It’s all in Tommy
Lee Jones’s details and he has made Hank unforgettable.
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