Movie · 2007 · History, Drama, Thriller, Crime, Mystery · 2h 4m · R · English
Curator score: 4.6/10 (95.1K ratings)
Sometimes finding the truth is easier than facing it.
Overview
A career officer and his wife work with a police detective to uncover the truth behind their son's disappearance following his return from a tour of duty in Iraq.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.6/10
IMDb: 7.1/10
Letterboxd: 3.46/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Metacritic: 65
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Paul Haggis
Production
Warner Independent Pictures, NALA Films, Summit Entertainment, Samuels Media, Blackfriars Bridge Films
Cast
Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, Frances Fisher, James Franco, Jonathan Tucker, Jason Patric, Josh Brolin, Wes Chatham, Jake McLaughlin, Mehcad Brooks, Wayne Duvall, Brent Briscoe, Barry Corbin, Greg Serano, Zoe Kazan, Brent Sexton, Devin Brochu, Glenn Taranto, Roman Arabia
Curator Review
Verdict
A sober, bruising post-Iraq drama that works best as a father-son tragedy and a critique of how war distorts people long after deployment. It can feel blunt and heavy-handed at times, but the performances and the bleak moral atmosphere make it worth watching.
Best for
viewers drawn to anti-war dramas
fans of grim character-driven mysteries
people who like Tommy Lee Jones in stoic, wounded roles
audiences interested in post-9/11 American fallout
Skip if
you want a subtle or lightly handled political film
you avoid bleak, emotionally punishing stories
you prefer fast-paced mysteries with clean resolutions
you are looking for a balanced ensemble over a single dominant performance
Overview
Paul Haggis turns a disappearance case into a grim study of grief, denial, and the damage war leaves behind. The mystery matters, but the film is most effective when it narrows in on a father trying to understand who his son became and what his country asked of him.
Worth noting
Tommy Lee Jones gives the film its spine, playing anger and heartbreak with the kind of weathered restraint that makes every small reaction count. Charlize Theron adds quiet force as a local detective, and the procedural thread keeps the story moving even when the film’s message is stated a little too plainly.
Bottom line
The result is uneven but potent: a serious, mournful drama with the feel of a modern American tragedy. It may not be subtle, but it lingers because it treats the emotional aftermath of war as something intimate, corrosive, and unresolved.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (4★) · 111 likes
There's a thing with movies that tends to happen, not a lot mind you, but it does happen. There are times where weirdly enough, and even unintentionally so, a great film gets overshadowed by another one. There are even much weirder times where the movie that overshadows the other actually shares a lot of the cast. One example of this is the movie, which came out really around the same time as the brilliant Coen Brothers feature No Country For… more There's a thing with movies that tends to happen, not a lot mind you, but it does happen. There are times where weirdly enough, and even unintentionally so, a great film gets overshadowed by another one. There are even much weirder times where the movie that overshadows the other actually shares a lot of the cast. One example of this is the movie, which came out really around the same time as the brilliant Coen Brothers feature No Country For… more
19oldboy91 (4.5★) · 97 likes
English Version below🟠🟢🔵
Behangen mit dem Zentner eines Bergmassives der auf einen selbst lastenden Last des eigenen Samens wie der Lenden als das akzeptieren müssen eines für den Moment aus der Norm und des Ichs geratenen eignenden Kindes eingetaucht in eine Welt bar jeder Norm und bar jedweden Ichs als der in ihm steckende Fruchtkörper der hier geraubten Unschuld.
„Im Tal von Elah“ deckt diese geraubte Unschuld zurückversetzt in einer Welt der oberflächlichen Achse und der Zentrierung im Gerüst der… more
shookone (0.5★) · 78 likes
No tragedy is as great as that of the battered American
For all his efforts to illuminate, fading is all that Paul Haggis manages. Iraqis become a mere jumble of pixels, a projection screen for the suffering of a nation. This is the secret racism that Haggis usually likes to see combated in his films. Mexicans are suspicious drug dealers, but the picture no longer changes in individual cases. The El Salvadorian on the other hand, is allowed to watch… more
19oldboy91 (4★) · 73 likes
Paul Haggis gräbt sich in „Im Tal von Elah“ in die Abgründe einer verklärten Welt des Krieges und dessen Konfrontation mit der realen Welt, dabei wird Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) die Schaufel die sich durch das über zwei Jahrzehnte gemachte und bekommende Bild seines jüngsten Sohnes Mike Deerfield (Jonathan Tucker) buddelt und in die Schichten der eigenen Psyche seines Sohnes als der Folgen seiner Umgebung vordringt.
In ruhigen, kargen Bildern offenbart uns Regisseur und Drehbuchautor Haggis eine Schlachtpalette des… more
Alex (4★) · 60 likes
It's never a mystery what writer/director Paul Haggis is going for here. This is an anti-war film and unabashedly so; often to the point of being in-your-face. But it's also a powerful tale of a man trying to find his son, featuring towering work from one of cinema's finest actors.
Tommy Lee Jones would be the last actor any journalist would wish to interview, and his career is littered with hammy, over-the-top performances; but at his best, there are few… more
2007 · Crime, Thriller, Western · 2h 2m · R · Curator 9.6/10 (3.1M ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus, Philo
Bleak Southwestern crime storytelling with a similarly fatalistic mood and a strong sense of moral decay.