Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
70 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

In the Valley of Elah
Warner Independent Pictures


7.1

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 44 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Crash

MPAA RATING: R for violent and disturbing content, language and some sexuality/nudity

Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon, Charlize Theron, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Jason Patric, and Frances Fisher

In the Valley of Elah tells the story of a war veteran, his wife and the search for their son, a soldier who recently returned from Iraq but has mysteriously gone missing, as well as the police detective who helps in the investigation. (Warner Independent Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Suspense/Thriller \| War
WRITTEN BY:	Mark Boal (story) Paul Haggis (& story)
DIRECTED BY:	Paul Haggis
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 19, 2008 Theatrical: September 14, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	114 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

It's the first Hollywood Iraq movie to remind me of a Vietnam film like Coming Home, and it does more than disturb. It scalds, moves, and heals.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah is built on Tommy Lee Jones' persona, and that is why it works so well. The same material could have been banal or routine with an actor trying to be "earnest" and "sincere."

100

San Francisco Chronicle Tamara Straus

For the most part it is an effective, disturbing and - a rarity for Haggis - subtle exploration of the stateside war story.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

A deeply reflective, quietly powerful work that is as timely as it is moving.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Tommy Lee Jones is marvelous in the film. He has one scene in particular, a simple two-person encounter, that's as good as it gets in the realm of American screen acting.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A rare blend of emotional content and intelligent material that makes it simultaneously gut-wrenching and thought-provoking.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Theron is very good as a woman struggling for respect in a sexist environment. There are also small but telling performances by Susan Sarandon as Hank's worried wife, and Frances Fisher as a topless bartender who aids in the investigation.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Transcends politics and forces us to consider just what it is we ask of young people who answer the call to duty.

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

One of the best films of 2007 but I wonder if it’s difficult message will turn away filmgoers. Haggis has constructed a very bitter pill that needs to be swallowed, especially by hardcore pro-war Americans.

Empire William Thomas

Tense, powerful and considerably less crass than "Crash," Elah may be jammed with ideas that don’t all connect, but Jones’ devastating performance makes this a compassionate and very human look at the Iraq conflict.

The New Yorker David Denby

No one could mistake the movie for a documentary, but the picture has some of the rectitude of a good documentary--a tone of plainness without flatness.

Time Richard Schickel

This is a sad, subtle and very good movie, designed not so much to make you think, but to make you feel the impact of large events on little lives.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The haunting, heart-piercing Elah isn't perfect. It's something better: essential.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Haggis drops exclamation points after his symbolic gestures, but in the rush to drive home his message on the confused mission in Iraq he offers a queasy revisionism that all but denies the legacy of Vietnam. Considering Deerfield is a Vietnam vet, it feels doubly false.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Haggis' earnest and eloquent film about the impact of the war in Iraq on U.S. soldiers, and by extension, their nation, is human-scaled. And as deep and harrowed as Jones' crevassed face.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Though the portentous title is taken from the Old Testament -- Elah is where little David took on Goliath -- the film's concerns are painfully timely and forcefully articulated.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Where "Crash" relentlessly pushed every conflict to a fever pitch, Elah takes its cues from Tommy Lee Jones' low-simmering lead performance.

Newsweek David Ansen

It's the casting of Iraq vet and non-professional Jake McLaughlin as Specialist Bonner, who fought alongside Deerfield's son in Iraq, that strikes a deeper emotional chord. His scenes with Jones, fraught with a complicated mix of bitterness, concern and guilt, are the best things in the movie.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

As a narrative, it’s clunky. As a whodunit, it’s third-rate. As the drama of a closed-off man’s awakening, it’s predictable. But Haggis has got hold of a fiercely urgent subject: the moral devastation of American soldiers serving in (and coming home from) Iraq. At its heart are deeper mysteries--and a tragedy that reaches far beyond anything onscreen.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Searing drama that uses the police procedural to explore the moral and psychological devastation of the Iraq war for U.S. soldiers (and, incidentally, for Iraqi citizens).

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

As the movie moves through its murder mystery mode and begins racking up political points, Hank becomes a stand-in for all those Americans bewildered and beleaguered by the war. He becomes a Symbol.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

So instead of a nice, clean movie about parental regret we’re forced to suffer through an unnecessary biblical metaphor stretched way past its limits of applicability and a bit with an American flag that turns Deerfield from a human being suffering a crisis of conscience into a hollow symbol of a country in a state of political disenchantment.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Journalists have a saying for someone who neglects or downplays the most important part of a news story: He buried the lead. That's what Paul Haggis does with "In the Valley of Elah," which submerges two important storylines beneath a pointless, unsatisfying whodunit.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

In the Valley of Elah dearly wants to be the Iraq war's counterpart to "Coming Home," documenting the tragic domestic legacy of a misguided foreign conflict. Wants to be, but isn't.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The last scene of In the Valley of Elah may be the most ridiculously ham-fisted and over-the-top moment in all of 2007’s supposed prestige cinema.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

What Haggis obviously wants to explore is what the war in Iraq is doing to the humanity of our soldiers there. By approaching it indirectly, he simplifies it to a degree that I expect will anger many Iraq veterans.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Paul Haggis switches from the problem of racism to the problem of Iraq. The war is a better fit. None of the exasperating guilt on display in "Crash" has made it into In the Valley of Elah, a solidly made genre movie: the Army mystery.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

However you judge the movie’s politics, and whatever its flaws, there is something inarguable, something irreducibly honest and right, about Mr. Jones’s performance.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

In the Valley of Elah is too inept and diffuse to be a howl against the war in Iraq. At best, it is a manly whimper.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Great actors can do more than carry a movie on the strength of their performances: They can also elevate it to a height it does not necessarily merit, and for much of In the Valley of Elah, Tommy Lee Jones does exactly that.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The more I thought about it, the less I liked what it turned out to be -- a vague promise unkept.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The characters in this somber film have the glum look of individuals delivering a Very Important Message to the world. And though this film in fact does have something crucial to convey, this is not the way to go about it.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

In my cut of the film, it ends after Jones opens the parcel from his son that's been sitting on his kitchen table since shortly after he left. I recommend viewers leave the theater at that point. You won't be sorry that you did.

Variety Robert Koehler

Too self-serious to work as a straight-ahead whodunit and too lacking in imagination to realize its art-film aspirations.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Elah comes packaged as a feverish murder mystery groaning beneath too many subplots and the added weight of a strained David and Goliath allegory.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Haggis also appears to have no respect for his audience. At its crudest, the film settles for agitprop...it's no Hollywood guy's call, particularly as he's extrapolating from a single case that could have occurred anywhere, at any time.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The movie chickens out. In the Valley of Elah could have been really interesting -- and really daring -- if it had focused on Hank's realization that his own child, supposedly a good kid, had perhaps committed the kinds of atrocities that would make any decent human being recoil. The movie (which Haggis also wrote) dances around that territory, but doesn't dare to march straight into its terrifying maw.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 44 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Essi S gave it a7:
I liked the simplicity of this film. Tommy Lee Jones was perfectly cast and he gave an amazing performance. Well deserved Oscar nomination. Also the anti-war theme was written beautifully in the script.

Timo V gave it a6:
Suburbian horrors of the warfare hit Tommy Lee Jones and his wife, as their kid goes missing. In the Valley of Elah is a Iraq-topic film with a twist.

Claire M. gave it a10:
One of the best films I've seen in a,ong time. Deserves an 11. Tommy Lee Jones is marvelous in the film and Charlize Theron is very good as a woman struggling for respect in a sexist environment. This is a sad, subtle and very good movie, designed to make you feel the impact of large events on little lives...

Emilie M. gave it a10:
A heartrending tale about what war does to even good young men. Not an anti-Iraq film, as some critics complain, but a film about the dangers of war many of us never contemplate. Acting and direction was brilliant.

Dean D. gave it a9:
I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican; I am a Canadian. Now that we have that straight, I can't be labelled a liberal or a patriot. Too much attention of the reviewers was directed towards the upside down flag symbolizing America in distress. Some thought this was an anti-American action because it disrespects American soldiers. However, I was impressed that the director had Jones, after he sees his son's picture of his squad, place only his son's military portait on the dresser and not the picture of his son with his squad. This shows Jones's character was still proud of his son but he did not agree America should be in Iraq. He believes that this is destroying America's youth. Even if they arrive back home in one piece, they have lost a part of their humanity. That is why he places the American flag upside down; it represents that America's youth returning from Iraq are in distress. I would put this movie in the same category as Tom Cruise's "Fourth of July" because both movies speak to the young Americans' souls that were irreparably damaged by a war in a faraway land that few could find on a map before hostilities began.

Moe H. gave it a0:
I saw this in the cinema, and i almost died mid-way through, i left near the end of the movie, it was mind numbingly boring, all the way through. The actors barely say anything during the whole thing, nothing intresting happens, just remains the same, the whole time.

Peter K. gave it a10:
This movie deserves an 11. Most people miss the elemental power of Tommy Lee Jones's smoldering performance and the depth of dramatic irony the writing has instilled in the part of Hank Deerfield, a father unraveling the horrific and mesmerizing truths of his son's disappearance which rivals anything that Sophocles did 2,500 years ago. This film, largely ignored by all but the critics, is one of the best to come out in decades.

In the Valley of Elah Warner Independent Pictures

In the Valley of Elah
Warner Independent Pictures