I have no idea what to say about this film. No, that's not true. I have so much to say I just can't organize my thoughts. It's an astoundingly good film about an appallingly depressing subject. After watching this at Santa Cruz CA's delightful Art Deco Del Mar Theater, my spouse and I drove home in silence, and poured a stiff drink before either of us could even begin deconstructing such an astonishing piece of cinema. What to say? What to review? I mean do I talk about the movie or the subject? Movies don't get much better than this but it was a harrowing experience watching it. Don't go when you want an evening of escapist fun. This is not a Friday Night movie. This is a Wet Monday Afternoon movie. Is it only possible to make great movies out of such depressing material? Let's start with the actual movie, directed by Oscar winner Paul Haggis. I'm sure this will be his next nomination. Maybe his next win. It works both as a detective story and a social piece. Every word of the script is perfect, not a word too many, not a word too few. It's perfectly edited and perfectly shot. Synopsis: Soldier returning from tour in Iraq goes AWOL. His father  ex army and ex military police - turns up at his son's base wanting to know what has happened, and the soldier then turns up dead, in small pieces, and apparently cooked. There is a gray area as to whether this is a military or civilian matter, and the father (Tommy Lee Jones) finds himself stuck between an incompetent civilian police force and an edgy and defensive military police force, neither of whom really gives a toss about the truth, the first because truth is too demanding, the second because it's too embarrassing. Why did his son die? Through deciphered cell phone images and gradually disintegrating platoon buddies, father discovers that his son was not the nice guy he thought he was, that he had nasty secrets to hide from mom and dad, like drugs, and a habit of torturing Iraqi prisoners and running over kids.<br /><br />Tommy Lee Jones gives the performance that will certainly earn him a nomination, and could well get him the Best Actor Oscar. He's an actor I've admired since Men in Black (really! It's on my All Time Favourites list) and in Elah his craggy character matches his craggy face. We feel every ounce of his despair and disillusionment without any histrionics, because the script is spare, and the acting superb. Charlize Theron co stars as the police detective who finds herself dragged into the investigation almost against her will. Despised by her male colleagues who feel she has slept her way to detective status, she goes from traffic patrol to Truth Fairy while juggling life as a single mom. This is certainly far and away the best thing I've ever seen Charlize Theron do. She looks raw and unglamorous and spends a large part of the movie with a Band Aid over her nose after TL Jones inadvertently lands a punch in her face. Susan Sarandon's part is fairly small as TL Jones' wife, but I can see why she wanted to take the role, and her scenes, though few, are stunning and stark. Almost set aside as merely the mother, (whose job, after all, as a mere girly, was just to give birth to and raise her sons. "Couldn't you leave me one of my boys?" she cries in anguish to her husband at one point), she is not allowed into the room where her son's gruesome remains lie (father was) and is expected to be stalwart and supportive, even though dad (TL Jones) set the macho tone for the home, by encouraging both sons to go into the military, where both died. Everyone is good in this movie, the well known and the lesser known. I have seen reviews which suggest it is too long but personally I don't see a thing which could have been cut.<br /><br />Now the film's subject matter, America's presence in Iraq; this is far more thorny and maybe IMDb is not the correct forum for an in-depth analysis. But personally I'd be happy to see Elah made compulsory viewing in every home. Here's a thought; as a society becomes 'softer' and its sons (and daughters) are taught equality, diversity, emotional intelligence and political correctness all through their formative years, how does that society then train the killers its military wing needs for war? Apparently, by hammering into them some kind of totally over the top hyper macho-ness, which not only melds them into a fighting unit but inures some to normal standards of human behaviour and possibly turns a few into sadists of the nastiest variety. (Or were these guys sadists before they joined the army and got shipped to Iraq?) Then shoving them into a totally unnecessary and unwarranted war where it is impossible to tell who is a friend and who a foe. How do you come from a society that purports to believe every life is valuable, and find yourself running over children playing in the street in case they are the enemy? This movie is said to be based on a real story. If it is, and that doesn't sober us up, nothing will. The only real surprise is that more of them don't go nuts.<br /><br />One very slight criticism. The murder site looks exactly the same as the murder site in Paul Haggis' Oscar winner Crash. It jarred. I found it a distraction to be saying to myself, "Hey isn't that where they found the body in Crash too?" He needs to find a new location scout.