In the valley of Elah

Rating:

* * * *

Verdict:

Jones' mesmerising performance is the centrepiece of a good film that could have been a great one.

The biggest budget Hollywood drama yet about the Iraq war (which actually all takes place on US soil) is in essence a film about how the personal and national tragedies of the invasion have become indistinguishable. Thanks in large part to Jones' mesmerisingly watchable, Oscar-nominated performance, it's a very good film.

But it fails to be a great one because of a colossal failure of nerve in the last 10 minutes. The script, by director Haggis (whose glib, smug

Crash

won the Oscar of its year) is a polished police procedural that reaches for a grander dramatic purpose. But, when push comes to shove, Haggis won't confront the horrible truth he dares to hint at: that the reckless adventure in Iraq has quite corrupted military notions of honour or comradeship or decency. The final shot apart, the closing scenes allow key characters to turn away from that in favour of a feel-good ending that betrays much of what has come before.

Jones plays Hank Deerfield, a spit-shined Vietnam vet and former military policeman who learns that his son Mike has gone awol immediately after returning from Iraq. Hank drives from his smalltown Tennessee home to Mike's base in New Mexico to help find him and, in short order, learns he's dead.

In his implacable search for the truth about what happened, Hank is assisted by gutsy but put-upon Detective Emily Sanders (Theron), and hindered by army officials for reasons that take a while to come clear. Also coming clear, with agonising slowness, is some footage shot on Mike's cellphone (the data, corrupted by heat, is being painstakingly recovered) which may offer a clue to what happened.

The impact of this dramatic device is somewhat undermined by the improbability that a soldier would be shooting such banal video in combat zones but its function is mainly to unsettle Hank - and us - by emphasising how the truth is always just beyond reach.

The film, whose leisurely pace is part of its appeal, is really all about things slowly coming into view. The truth of Jones' Hank seeps around the edges of his watchful, contained and profoundly sad performance. Alone and in tandem with Sarandon, who portrays his wife in a few tiny and perfect cameos, he gradually lets us see how deep-rooted that sadness in his eyes actually is, how confused and enraged he feels about living in a world that doesn't recognise him. When he makes his motel bed like a barracks bunk or uses an old soldier's trick to get the knife-edge creases back in his trousers, he's not just keeping up standards but trying to protect himself from a world gone mad. At its best, this is a film about his learning that it's too late for that.

Peter Calder

Cast:

Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon

Director:

Paul Haggis

Running time:

122 mins

Rating:

R16, contains violence, offensive language and content that may disturb

Screening:

Hoyts, Berkeley Mission Bay and Botany Downs, Rialto, SkyCity Queen St and Albany, Matakana Cinemas