In The Valley of Elah

There are a lot of Paul Haggis haters out there. I am not one of them. I think he writes ridiculously good scripts and after "Crash" and now "In the Valley of Elah", I think he is also becoming a very good director.

I suppose in the case of "In the Valley of Elah" one could say it's not hard to be a good director. When you're working with Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon it's probably best to stay out of their way and let them do their thing and everything will be fine. They are two of our finest actors and they don't disappoint in this picture.

At the heart of the story is a murder mystery, but in a sense the identity of the killer is actually secondary to an examination of the effects of wars on the young men who are sent to fight them.