Maggers Wrote:I saw IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH close on the heels of MICHAEL CLAYTON. As I was leaving the theater, I thought I liked CLAYTON more than IN THE VALLEY. But it's the latter movie that has stayed with me. Paul Haggis of CRASH fame wrote and directed it. Tommy Lee Jones takes stoic to new levels, and Charlize Theron was solid. It's the story that is most compelling, yet it unfolds slowly in a patchwork fashion. You work with Jones and Theron to solve the mystery. I won't say what the mystery is, though if you've seen coming attractions you probably know.

Haggis does not tie this movie up with a pretty ribbon. He leaves it ragged and hanging and forces you to ponder what you've witnessed. It's about war and the toll it takes on the those who wage it. There is an important, ugly underside to the movie that is touched on with subtlety and left this viewer wondering how the young men in my life, my nephews, would fare in such a place, facing those experiences.

IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH will not knock your socks off; it's not meant to. It will make you think.