IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH. Dir Paul Haggis. 2007

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Tommy Lee Jones plays Hank, a retired military policeman, father to two soldiers. Mike, the youngest, goes missing shortly after his return to base from Iraq, and Hank sets out to find him.

He comes up against Charlize Theron playing a desensitized female detective working amongst misogynistic officers. Hardened to human suffering, this woman in a man’s world is impatient with Hank when he asks for her help. However, the nature of the murder intrigues and touches her, and they form an uneasy alliance in the search for Mike’s killers.

Theron is convincing as the isolated single mother; fallible, human but also determined. Lee Jones is on good form as the disciplined, methodical military man, who loses control just once, his emotions only for him to know. Susan Sarandon, as the bereaved mother, conveys the loneliness of grief and deep, internalized suffering.

Handled with restraint throughout - dialogue, performances and cinematography, writer and director Paul Haggis has created a realistic drama about a father’s quest for his son and the truth. Elah shows the precarious balance struck between the importance of self control and repressing human emotions. Coming after many stories about the effect of the Vietnam War and drug abuse on America’s soldiers, Elah still manages to surprise.

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