Review – In the Valley of Elah

I need to add Paul Haggis to the list of “directors to avoid” next to M. Night Shyamalan. Crash was bad enough, but now he’s trying his hand at murder mystery. One of the things that make this so spectacularly unsuccessful is Haggis’s inability to put a story together. A big part of the fun of mysteries is joining the characters’ quest to figure out what’s going on. And that’s annoyingly impossible when one can’t distinguish between genuine clues, intentional red herrings, and illogical gimmicks intended solely to tuck a few boob shots into the picture. Tommy Lee Jones stars as a crusty ex-Army cop trying to shed some light on the circumstances surrounding the death of his son. To be fair, the picture does make some good points about the damage wars can do to the emotional lives of the young people who fight in them. But Haggis goes about his task in such an ass-backwards way that it’s hard to side with him even when he’s right. See if desperate