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Rating:  -
This film is solid in terms of acting and direction. The story is exciting and well constructed. But the film subtly projects a message (subtle in that it is hidden in Tommy Lee Jones's quest to solve his son's murder) that our soldiers in Iraq are self-destructive psychos with no moral fiber. War is, indeed, hell. But it does take two to fight, another truism. It is very easy to criticize when all seems to be secure; our soldiers are fighting to protect our security. The main thing that I got out of this taut drama is that the media can manipulate our sentiments. When Jones flew the flag at the end, I thought he was going to fly it the proper way to honor his son. I was surprised.
Rating:  -
Usually when I'm told that anyone is "complicated," I shy away, having too often found the term a cover for someone who is a self-dramatizing bore. However this movie presents complicated people who are inherently interesting, and a complicated situation that is inherently moving and not just a layer-cake of contrived emotion.
This might be one of the few movies you'll see that does NOT assume a young enlisted person who fought in Iraq is automatically "a hero." In fact, much of the compelling drama of this film revolves around the viewer's discovery of just how unheroic young Mike Deerfield was.
The disillusionment is made all the more poignant in that we see it through the eyes of the young man's father when he goes to his son's state-side base to find out the circumstances of the young man's grisly death. The disappointment in who his son had grown up to be comes in subtle ways at first, as when Tommy Lee Jones goes to Mike's regular off-duty hangout and finds it's a sleazy strip-joint. One could dismiss that - boys will be boys. But the realization of the young man's character flaws starts to go deeper.
Two mysteries haunt this drama. The first is the obvious one about who killed the young man. But the second mystery, the one that is legitimately complicated, revolves around how this young man, born with so much promise, could have devolved into such a flawed and actually corrupt human being.
Was it his father's stern military influence skewing the boy to place more emphasis on spit-and-polish appearance than on warm human exchange? Was it the brutalizing circumstances of the guerilla war in Iraq? Was it humankind's innate propensity for evil?
The bonus material on this DVD includes one particularly telling outtake. I usually agree with Director's decisions about which scenes were best left on the cutting room floor. But in this case, the main outtake would have added a lot to the character study. In any case, be sure to check it out in the DVD extras.
Susan Sarandon doesn't have a great deal to do in this movie, and outside of one or two wrenching scenes, is almost wasted in the role of the quietly suffering, marginalized wife. However Tommy Lee Jones gives a tour de force performance, really making us feel the consequences of a family's emotional estrangement. This is a memorable film all the way around.
Rating: -
I have to admit it was with some trepidation that I finally saw this 2007 murder mystery directed and written by Paul Haggis. His last time doing double-duty was the polarizing Crash, an omnibus fable of LA-based race relations, powerfully acted but also a manipulative model of melodramatic contrivance. This time out, he is less patronizing because the storyline is more contained and based in fact. However, Haggis still shows the same need to stay topical, seek restitution for his characters and convey an undeniable sense of parable. These factors are what make movie-watchers either love his work or hate it for the way he often undercuts the credibility of the drama to make his points. Regardless, there is no arguing with the fact that Tommy Lee Jones gives a masterful performance of a man who can barely contain his grief under a veneer of old-school reserve. It's a gratifying continuation of the recently stellar work he has done in his own directorial debut, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and the Coen Brothers' bleak No Country for Old Men.
Jones plays taciturn Hank Greenfield, a retired Army officer and ex-military cop who now hauls gravel in Tennessee. He receives word that his son Mike, a soldier just back from Iraq, is about to be reported as AWOL from his base in New Mexico. Immediately sensing something is not right, Hank leaves his concerned wife Joan at home and drives straight to the base to see if he can get to the bottom of his son's disappearance. He receives next to no assistance from either the military or the local police, who argue over whether it's a matter for the Army to resolve. Things change dramatically when a charred, dismembered body is found abandoned in a desolate field outside of town. Once it has been identified, Hank works diligently and fractiously with Emily Sanders, a sympathetic, overworked detective, to find out not only who the murderer is but what the reasons were for such a vile act of inhumanity. Naturally, they encounter an abundance of military red-tape, pervasive apathy from the local police force and a couple of red herrings before coming to a resolution.
Without giving anything away, I have to say the ending lacks a deep emotional resonance that would have made Hank's journey to know his son truly memorable. Instead, we find Haggis informing us how the day-to-day bloodshed in Iraq cannot help but impact the hearts and minds of those who make it home, a lesson one would have thought was made clear from Vietnam. Beyond the quietly nuanced work of Jones, a somewhat deglamorized Charlize Theron continues to prove she can be a fine actress in worthy roles like Emily (and not the comic-book dominatrix Aeon Flux). She fluctuates between strong and empathetic with impressive fluidity. In the understandably smallish role of Joan, Susan Sarandon barely has any screen time for an actress of her caliber, but she makes her couple of wrenching scenes count. Similarly powerful actors have been cast in relatively minor parts - James Franco as an officious base official, Josh Brolin as Emily's ego-driven chief, a nearly unrecognizable Barry Corbin (Northern Exposure) as Hank's old Army pal, and Jason Patric who is allowed to make of an impression as a poker-faced lieutenant who appears to be stonewalling the case. Frances Fisher has a thankless cameo as a topless waitress who provides one of the key clues in the case.
Except for a couple of unnecessary detours toward the end, Haggis has ultimately made less of an involving mystery and more of a dramatically effective "message" movie - not as heavy-handed as "Crash" and of a less arguable variety. The 2008 DVD offers no commentary track from either Haggis or Jones, a surprising omission, but there is a sobering 43-minute video diary of the production spotlighting a number of the actors playing the soldiers as well as the parents of the real-life soldier upon whom Haggis based his story. Also included is an "additional scene", which amounts to an eight-minute deleted subplot about Mike's unknown girlfriend rather absurdly named "Jennifer Lopez" for easy laughs. The laughs evaporate when we see she is a multiple amputee who began to see Mike's changing nature. Particularly fascinating is the variable use of green scene to hide her limbs.
Rating:  -
Valley is a beautifully shot movie, with great acting and an engaging thriller script. Plus it criticizes the Iraq War. Hence the great reviews.
But there is another side to Valley - disrespect for soldiers and dishonest manipulation of the facts. Soldiers in Valley are pretty much all depicted negatively: they spend times in strip joints and hookers, do drugs (meth, just in case viewers don't mind pot) and booze up constantly. And, oh, yes, they are also torturers, psychopaths and murderers.
At the core, Valley is a true story, but a wee bit "spiced up" to get the PC message across. Do soldiers booze up and go to strip clubs? I'd be surprised if many didn't. Do they all do that and are they all druggies? Hmmm, probably not, but that's not what Valley shows.
Another example is that you have 2 simultaneous murders on the same base. The main story's and the bathtub drowning incident. In real life, the bathtub drowning didn't happen in the same place and time. Now, 1 grisly murder is a big story, sure. 2 murders imply a trend. Valley is all about implications by twisting facts.
Does the VA always treat veterans well? Ummm, there was a scandal about that, no?
Is the Bush administration incompetent and did they royally mess up in Iraq? Yes and yes.
Are vets at risk of coming back traumatized? Yes, and they need help, not being spit on.
Do soldiers, under the pretense of caring for them, need to be generalized as psychopathic low-lives? I think not.
And if you wanna tell me that the real-life dad of the victim liked the movie... so what? Do you really expect him to sing the praise of the Army and its soldiers, considering what was done to his son?
Rating: -
I thought this movie was well written and acted, but I found the resolution of the murder to be a bit unsatisfying and incomplete.
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