Paul Haggis' followup to his Best Picture winning Crash is certainly a bit of an improvement. I'm not a Crash hater, but I'm the first to admit it's far too heavy-handed and sloppy to be considered to be a great movie. And honestly, at its worst, you can feel that old Haggis hackery popping up in Elah more than a few times, most notably in that final shot, which is the worst final shot of a film since John Sayles' Silver City. I also have to giggle at the lame Biblical allegory from which the film gets its title (Elah was the valley in which David fought Goliath), which, try as I might, I cannot get to fit any possible scenario in the film's story. For the most part, though, In the Valley of Elah is an intriguing mystery and a powerful story. Tommy Lee Jones plays a Vietnam vet whose son has gone AWOL. He drives two days to the Army base in hopes of quelling the situation before it gets any worse. Unfortunately, the reason his son is AWOL is because he has been murdered, which is discovered shortly after Jones arrives. Both the military police and the local police (led by Jason Patrick and Charlize Theron respectively) are on the case, but Jones, himself a former MP, decides to do his own detective work. The mystery is well crafted by Haggis and his co-screenwriter, Mark Boal. It is true that, after parts of the mystery are revealed, some parts that you learned earlier don't make much sense. But that's pretty common in mysteries in general, and I didn't feel like Haggis had cheated, although it's entirely possible he's just kind of stupid. There are several very moving moments in the film. Susan Sarandon plays Jones' wife, and, while I usually dislike her as an actress, she brought me to tears in the scene where she learns of her son's death. Jones' performance was nominated for an Oscar, and it's well deserved (although I would have rather seen him get one for No Country for Old Men, where he was even better). I like how Haggis makes him rather unsympathetic at times. Theron is also very good.