With In the Valley of Elah, Paul Haggis almost transcends the pompous, slushy dreck that was Crash. Almost. Its first half is a restrained, intelligent examination of trauma, surely one of the most pertinent, fertile themes for post-9/11 realist-populist cinema. Tommy Lee Jones plays Hank Deerfield, an ex-officer looking for his AWOL son, newly returned from Iraq; Charlize Theron is Emily Sanders, a detective who aids him in his search, despite repeated sexist hounding from her co-workers. Haggis’ picture of America is ugly, elemental (it’s arguably Hawthornian) and free—at least at first—from proselytizing. This is, quite aptly, a place where damaged souls propagate more damaged souls by pretending that nothing is wrong. Alas, Haggis’ hand drops like a lead balloon at Elah’s conclusion, and the film becomes festooned with his deplorable trademarks: symbolic terrorism, insultingly redundant scenes proving the characters’ lives have indeed altered, and really bad music. (DB)