In The Valley Of Elah (Blu-ray)

outstanding performances from a heavyweight cast, a deep and thought provoking story and superb direction.

A Slow burning Movie, that sets the right mood and does not deviate from that, the story is very good as it unfolds. The actions and and results presented are not in black and white, there are a lot of Grey areas. For example I didn't know how to feel about the charcter played by Tommy Lee Jones's son. Also the Final image of the movie seemed to sum up the USA at this moment in it's history, home and abroad
If you want a good non flashy story , well directed, very well acted then you will get something from this movie.
Tommy Lee Jones certainly deserved his Oscar nom as he is Brilliant, Charie Therzon shows her Oscar win for Monster was not a fluke (unlike Halle Berry for Monsters Ball) and she is becoming a pretty fine actress. Josh Brolin was good in the couple of scenes he had, would have liked to see more. Susan Sarandon did what was required and it was nice to see Jason Patric back.

Some reviews of this film have described it as "tripe", "slow", and "dull". To a certain extent I agree; if you are expecting an all-action investigative thriller (Die Hard style), look elsewhere.

At the helm of the film is a study of, as the director puts, "the first victim of war; our humanity". The story revolves around PTSD resulting from war, the difficulty soldiers of all nations have reintegrating into 'normal' society, and the problems war-atrocities create. My one criticism of the film is that it does perhaps take on too many central themes, attempting to look at issues surrounding the afore-mentioned war ideas, parental problems, the 'right' to kill, de-humanisation etc etc... A lot of thinking is required. But, this said, it does most of this competently and transparently.

If you are interested in any of the above, and especially if you liked Waltz With Bashir (covers a lot of the same themes - although Waltz is probably better), definitely worth a watch.

Enjoy!

A father receives a telephone call from the military authorities informing him that his son has been killed. On further investigation the father finds out that his son was not killed in active service in Iraq but in America close to the military base. He is called to identify his son's charred body and this in itself raises more in depth questions. With the military not answering the satisfactory questions, he is forced to involve the local police only to find that the incident took place on Military ground and not within the territory of the local police.

I have to say that I bought this film, as I am a great fan of Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon. Most of their earlier choices of films have been great and is the very reason I have rated them as super stars. The story is based on American troops serving in Iraq and the trauma they all experienced whilst serving their country. But this scenario has been done so many times before that it really needs to be a far more intriguing storyline than is presented here. The plot ambles along so slowly that as the time ticks by I started to wonder when the film was going to kick in. If the players were not as strong a line up as presented, it would suffer further frustration. I firmly believe that this cast carried the film, as the story line was not going to give this an impressive rating. As for action it is non-existent, although the cinematography cannot be faulted.

All the actors give a 5 star performance and include mere cameo roles for Josh Brolin, James Franco and Jason Patric. It's worth watching but I would have difficulty sitting through it a second time around.

In The Valley Of Elah is a mouthful on it's own. But the film was good, there wasn't really anything that stood out too much for me. The meaning of the film and how the soldiers lives change when they've been to Iraq is nothing new. Been done plenty of times before. The directing was okay but not as good as we've seen Paul Haggis before. The film is slow moving as well and it will keep you interested but when you watch it a second time theres nothing to keep your interest. The film was shot well and the cinematography was good. The film is a bit of a tear jerker but i felt it was aimed mainly at American audiences, unlike Crash which was aimed at racism and people in all countries could relate to it.

The acting was good on all parts. Tommy Lee Jones really can't be faulted, he's a terrific actor. It was nice to see Charlize Theron is another descent role at last. But they were really the only main characters. Susan Sarandon and Josh Brolin were really underused and James Franco had more of a special guest appearance than a supporting role.

All together I'd say the film is worth a watch but i don't know if i would by this again if i saw it first to be honest.

3 star film
4 star product

3.5 stars overall.