Venice. In the Valley of Elah.

"The Iraq war has proven as nettlesome to Hollywood moviemakers as it has to Washington policymakers, and In the Valley of Elah continues the trend," writes Robert Koehler for Variety. "Working overtime to be an important statement on domestic dissatisfaction with the war and the special price paid by vets and their families, Paul Haggis's follow-up to Crash is too self-serious to work as a straight-ahead whodunit and too lacking in imagination to realize its art-film aspirations."

But for Michael Rechtshaffen, writing for the Hollywood Reporter, Haggis has "avoided the dreaded sophomore slump... In the Valley of Elah is a deeply reflective, quietly powerful work that is as timely as it is moving." The film's also "graced by an exceptional Tommy Lee Jones lead performance that would have to be considered one of the finest in the 60-year-old actor's career."

Updated through 9/6.

Updates, 9/2: "Those of us who weren't crazy about Crash thought it reduced each of its dozens of characters to one small virtue and big flaw," writes Time's Richard Corliss. "This time Haggis is more open to his characters' drives and demons. The good guys, the ones so well played by Jones, [Charlize] Theron and [Susan] Sarandon, have nuances worth noting; and even the ones capable of committing the most heinous crimes seem like decent people to whom some awful thing happened. (Special mention to Wes Chatham, who could be Matt Damon's younger, cuter brother, as a soldier testifying to Hank about the killing.) The combination of dedicated actors and a superior script helps make Elah a far more satisfying film than Crash."

"The message that the American people and military families in particular are affected by and dissatisfied with the Second Iraqi War feels old and the idea of The Good War does not really need to be slayed anymore," writes Boyd van Hoeij at european-films.net. "The screenplay by the director never touches a raw nerve that could bring some sparkle to an otherwise odd mix of patriotism and criticism of contemporary US society."

"[T]he proximity of In the Valley of Elah to Redacted is a beautiful gift that the Venice Film Festival has just given our eyes and our thoughts," writes Emmanuel Burdeau in Cahiers du cinéma's Venice diary.

The BBC takes note of Haggis and Theron's thoughts on the war.

Updates, 9/3: "While Lee Jones's expressive face becomes an emblem of pain and regret, the film's most controversial image is its final shot: of the US flag hanging upside down and in tatters," writes the Observer's Jason Solomons. "In the Valley of Elah sympathises with American troops yet criticises their involvement in a war they don't understand."

"The really fascinating aspect of Paul Haggis's follow-up to the Oscar-winning Crash is the way it uses Hollywood conventions as a Trojan horse to deliver a radical, anti-war message to a mainstream audience," writes Lee Marshall in Screen Daily. "Elah is a denunciation of a dirty war disguised, for much of its length, as a murder mystery about the killing of a US soldier, newly returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.... The challenge of this approach, of course, it that more demanding viewers may be alienated by the sheer conventionality of that Trojan horse casing, before the film starts to reveal its true colours in the final stretch."

Updates, 9/4: "It's Jones's film: his performance will surely see him nominated for an Oscar," predicts Time Out's Dave Calhoun, and Elah "is largely a solid and effective addition to the spate of films about Iraq emerging from America."

"It's a thought-provoking film with a powerful message and some very fine performances - not just from the always dependable Jones and Theron, but newcomer Jake McLaughlin, himself an Iraq veteran, who plays one of Mike's platoon buddies," writes Mark Salisbury at In the Company of Glenn. "[T]his is a solid, emotive and moving film, with Haggis using the tropes of the thriller to smuggle across political points with laudable subtly and skill."

"Haggis suggests the Vietnam veterans, who were themselves set adrift when they came home, now have a new sense of purpose in 'trying to steer these men through this terrible morass,'" reports Geoffrey Macnab. "The US director is now planning special screenings of In the Valley of Elah to raise money for veterans."

Update, 9/6: "In the Valley of Elah is one of a ever-growing class of movies - released in the last quarter of the year, festooned with talent, and ostensibly about something - that desperately want to be seen as 'political' and 'important' modern moviemaking," writes James Rocchi at Cinematical from Toronto. "But we've already given Haggis rewards for his lazy storytelling, his cheap sentimentality, his glib and clumsy narrative tricks - so who could fault him for coming back to them again and again? In the Valley of Elah is very much in the mold of Million Dollar Baby - where an older man uses his lifetime of experience to try and do the right thing even though doing the wrong thing would be a hell of a lot easier. It's also got Crash's delusions of moral grandeur. Yes, In the Valley of Elah is about great and mighty topics, but it's somehow both self-satisfied and self-righteous, both preachy and predictable."

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Covering the coverage: Venice 07. Index.

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Posted by dwhudson at August 31, 2007 1:31 AM