by Frank Calvillo
Charlize Theron dons the crown once again, reprising her role as Ravena, the Evil Queen in The Huntsman: Winter’s War, the prequel/sequel to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman. While the film may be a mixed bag, Theron doesn’t disappoint in any of her scenes, proving herself once again as one of the most exciting actresses working today.
I’ve always admired how easily Theron is able to move between large studio spectacle and smaller, more personal fare, while proving herself more than capable at both. For me, one of the most powerful times she ventured into the latter territory was when she starred opposite Tommy Lee Jones in the still-underappreciated 2007 mystery/drama In the Valley of Elah.
Written and directed by Paul Haggis, the plot of In the Valley of Elah centers around retired Army investigator Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones), who receives a call saying that his son, who was serving in Iraq, returned home a number of days before, but has been reported missing. After kissing his wife Joan (Susan Sarandon) goodbye, he travels to the base in New Mexico, where his son is eventually found dead. Grieving, but determined, Hank enlists the help of Detective Emily Sanders (Theron) to uncover exactly what happened to his son.
Haggis may well have created his richest protagonist to date in Hank. This is a man so set in his life and ideology. He has created a world for himself and shaped it with such order and tranquility that nothing can shake it. Yet what happens to his son shakes up every aspect of his existence, and Hank finds himself forced to question everything he knew and believed about war, the military, and the overall world he thought he once believed in. However Hank is also genuinely funny with a dry, sarcastic wit, which he clings to as his ultimate guard against the real world. When Emily asks him whether or not he knew if his son had any enemies, he replies, “You mean other than the thousands of Iraqis and foreign fighters that have been trying to kill him up until a couple of weeks ago?”
While Emily isn’t the focus within the film, it’s interesting to watch her character’s evolution nonetheless. As the only female detective in her department, many of the cases which come her way are minor, sometimes actually involving livestock, making her the butt of the joke in her colleagues’ eyes. When she takes on the mystery of what happened to Hank’s son, she doesn’t approach it from an opportunistic point of view, but rather out of a respect and admiration for Hank and a hunger to find out what really happened. The whole experience is new territory for Emily and this is obvious from some of the rookie mistakes she makes, such as nearly breaking down during the killer’s confession, showing that the case is almost like a coming of age for her.
It goes without saying that In the Valley of Elah is a comment on war. However, the film refreshingly puts all political aspects aside to instead focus on the personal effects those who enter that world eventually leave with. Returning soldiers are at once labeled as heroes while everything they’ve experienced while being away from home has the potential to turn them into monsters. Its illustrations of how war has the ability to change people and transforms them into completely different individuals is a tough concept to embrace, but remains endlessly fascinating at the same time.
Many have cited In the Valley of Elah as Tommy Lee Jones’s best performance, and for good reason. The actor has never been this alive and electric on screen in his long and storied career. His work here, which goes from silent grief to dry wit, to steely determination proves that Jones is indeed one of the greatest American actors of his generation. It would be hard for anyone to act alongside him without getting lost in the shadows, but Theron holds her own, giving Emily a strength, but also a vulnerability, which instantly makes her character stand out in her own right. Meanwhile, the handful of supporting players, including Josh Brolin and Jason Patric, do great work, but it’s Sarandon in her handful of scenes who is truly heartbreaking. Her reaction to hearing that now both her sons are dead is handled with the kind of grace only an actress like her can deliver.
In the Valley of Elah should have gotten more praise than it did when it was released. Despite mainly positive reviews, the film was curiously absent from the awards circuit. Some have pointed to the number of war-themed films that were released around at the time as the cause, while others have cited backlash over Haggis’s polarizing Best Picture win for Crash as reasons. The film did receive a bit of acclaim however when Jones was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars that year for his magnificent performance.
If some people did indeed turn their nose up at In the Valley of Elah simply because they found themselves not warming up to Crash, they truly missed out. While the latter film’s messages were presented in an “in your face” manner, the beauty of this follow-up effort is the subtle way its message of war washes over you. Arguments of anti-war or pro-war aside, what In the Valley of Elah ultimately asks with regards to those who enter combat is: who are they really fighting
