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Christy Lemire, Associated Press: This is Jones' show and he makes you feel a father's fear and loss in ways that are subtly heartbreaking, never melodramatic. Read more
A.O. Scott, New York Times: Underneath the deceptively quiet surface of In the Valley of Elah is a raw, angry, earnest attempt to grasp the moral consequences of the war in Iraq. Read more
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Paul Haggis follows up his Oscar-winning Crash with this searing drama that uses the police procedural to explore the moral and psychological devastation of the Iraq war for U.S. soldiers. Read more
John Hartl, Seattle Times: Thanks largely to the intricate, committed performances of Jones and Theron, it succeeds as an effective whodunit. Read more
Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Haggis still has a weakness for big dramatic gestures and heavy-handed symbolism, but a somber tone and Jones' tight-lipped yet moving performance nicely undercut the tendency toward Crash-style overwrought melodrama. Read more
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: In the Valley of Elah rises and falls on the strength of Tommy Lee Jones' performance, which is to say that it rises to great heights, indeed. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: 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. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The film's sense of responsibility proves almost paralyzing, allowing the production to be overwhelmed by the seriousness of what it's attempting. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: A lot of very good films have a distinct drop-off point, usually occasioned when the gods of character are shoved aside for the gods of plot. In the Valley of Elah is one of those very good pictures. Read more
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: [Haggis'] self-serious tone becomes wearisome, and he fails to explore how the military failed its men while clumsily laying a guilt trip at its feet. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: In the Valley of Elah held me despite my many qualms. That's because the subject matter is innately powerful and resists Haggis's pigeonholing. He's latched onto something that's bigger than himself. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: There should be enough gut-troubling truth to In the Valley of Elah to make it transcend political squabbling. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: 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. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Tommy Lee Jones gives such an amazingly nuanced, judicious, soulful and selfless performance as a military man distraught over the death of his soldier son in In the Valley of Elah that one can only wish it was in a movie that had the same virtues. Read more
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: In the Valley of Elah is an endorsement of doubt, a demand for questioning, wrapped in a package anyone can buy. Read more
Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: Elah uses a slightly plodding police procedural format as an opening to a discussion about the effect the war is having on returning soldiers. It's a lot to ask of one movie. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: In Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah, Jones' face is a poignantly detailed map of skepticism, simmering rage and, in the final count, self-recrimination. Read more
David Ansen, Newsweek: The considerable power of the film is contained in Jones's hard-bitten, movingly understated performance. Read more
David Denby, New Yorker: [Jones] gives a great, selfless, and heartbreaking performance that completely dominates this elusive but powerful movie. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Paul Haggis's In the Valley of Elah is vital in spite of its mustiness. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: In the Valley of Elah is an almost painfully powerful drama. Read more
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: 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. Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Tommy Lee Jones is at the top of his game as a grieving fa ther determined to uncover the disturbing truth behind his soldier son's death in Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: In the Valley of Elah is another in a long line of great Tommy Lee Jones performances. Read more
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Paul 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. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: 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. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah is built on Tommy Lee Jones' persona, and that is why it works so well. Read more
Tamara Straus, San Francisco Chronicle: Elah does have moments of slipping into political sermon, but for the most part it is an effective, disturbing and -- a rarity for Haggis -- subtle exploration of the stateside war story. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: This is no doubt the first of many movies that will struggle to tell the stories of a war that's far from over, and even if the tale is imperfectly told, it commands our attention. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: There's much to admire here: a continually surprising storyline, an aversion to cliche, a gallery of characters who are neither stock heroes nor cardboard villains, and a flawless cast. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: In his first solo outing since the Oscar-winning Crash, writer-director Paul Haggis falls into a familiar trap, where his lofty social theme fights its own battle against the forces of artifice and contrivance. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The failure to avoid pat answers and cheap grandstanding dogs Haggis here as surely as it did in the overrated Crash, and robs In the Valley of Elah of much of its power. Read more
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The combination of dedicated actors and a superior script helps make Elah a far more satisfying film than Crash. Read more
Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: 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. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: This is undeniably a haunting movie. But don't let that scare you off. The ending, and all that leads up to it, will leave viewers devastated but deeply moved. Read more
Robert Koehler, Variety: Paul Haggis'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. Read more
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Haggis is an extremely talented man, and much of the film works brilliantly. But it misses the mark. Read more