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Welcome back Mr. Haggis!

Written and Directed by: Paul Haggis.
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon.

‘Everyday Goliath came down in the valley and challenged for anyone who wants to fight. One day a boy named David accepted it. Killed Goliath with a slingshot’, as Sgt Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) tells this story to Detective Sander’s (Charlize Theron) son, she later confronts him about the inaccuracy. To this Hank says, ‘Course it is true’. Hank recieved a phone call few days ago about his son’s absence from a military base who got back from Iraq few days ago and disappeared from the base later. Events that follow will be strongly connected either by human nature, or the absence there of.

After writing an Oscar winning screenplays ‘Million Dollar Baby’ and ‘Crash’, Paul Haggis comes back with a story that does surprise you and shock you at the same time. Based on true events Paul Haggis has superbly wrote and directed Valley of Elah. I am surprised how could Academy awards commitee could not consider this one for the best picture? I guess days of getting preached are over after you graduate high school. Agree about the preachiness. But the way Mr Haggis makes the point is extraordinary. His story telling habits are sharp. May it be Milllion Dollar Baby, Casino Royale or Crash. This time he seems to have picked up the same pen that he put down after Million Dollar Baby, which has lines like “People die as a janitor. She could say to herself atleast I tried’. I guess that itself stirrs and changes the viewer’s point of view. Valley of Elah is one good example of the cinema that keeps shaking you all the time. You say to yourself its over and it is not.

Tommy Lee Jones gives an oscar worthy performance. A retired seargent with deep eyes that are giving up after witnessing horrors and are looking for traces at the same time because his heart doesn’t give up. This constant war of horror against fatherly love is constantly portrayed with a lot of anguish. He is marvellous. But in the winning race unfortunately he cannot surpass the bloody eyed Daniel Plainview’s (Daniel Day Lewis) hunger to become an epic Oil-man in Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘There will be blood’ (2007). Charlize Theron puts on a very little makeup as a newly appointed detective being bullied by fellow seniors. Susan Sarandon gives a memorable performance as Sgt Deerfield’s wife. The southern accent reminds of ‘Louise’.

In the end the winner is Mr. Haggis for cleverly twisting and turning the story just about right to create an environment where an aging father faces the fear of Goliath to slingshot him. But the reason for initiation of fear is far placed than the termination.

My Rating: 8/10.

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