In the Valley of Elah....& Manhunter

I've seen a couple of movies in the last few days....both of them definite recommendations.  The first one is from 2007 and is called In the Valley of Elah (don't worry, the title is explained during the movie) and stars Tommy Lee Jones & Charlize Theron.  Really solid supporting cast, including Susan Sarandon, Josh Brolin, Jason Patric (?!--where has he been), Frances Fisher (great character actress) & James Franco.  The story revolves around the son of Jones & Sarandon returning to the U.S. from a combat area and suddenly going missing.  Jones is a former military police officer and attempts to enlist the aid of local police detective Theron in locating his son.  Lots of plot twists in this one and several particularly gripping scenes.  Jones was rightly nominated for an Oscar in this one.  Film got a 7.2 on IMDB, and I might have gone a little bit higher.
Some people have complained about the way the movie portrays our military, but I think that portraying some of the emotional troubles that a soldier in a combat zone suffers from upon return were dealt with fairly enough.  Nice underrated film worth seeking out.


1986 brought us Manhunter by director Michael Mann.  The film came out right in the middle of Mann's televison success with Miami Vice and the similarities are pretty apparent.  Lots of pastels and synthesizers.
Detective Will Graham, played with a lot of angst and internal grief by William J Peterson, is going in search of a serial killer that has the FBI stumped.  To do this, he seeks out convicted killer Hannibal Lector, who has his own history with Graham.  The movie features the terrific character actor Brian Cox as Lector, in the role that would, of course, be immortalized by Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs.  This is a fine film, although some of the technics used by director Mann that I described already makes the movie seem very, um...80's.  Which is too bad, because there are some really fine performances here.  Cox makes a compelling Lector and is very good, just seemingly forgotten because of Hopkins performances.  Also doing fine work here are the likes of Dennis Farina and a very young Joan Allen.  But the guy who really stands out  in my opinion, is Tom Noonan as the extremely creepy Francis Dollarhyde.  I actually liked his performance quite a bit more than the brooding Peterson.  Despite the dated aspect of some of the music and clothes, this is still a very good crime thriller, and worth checking out.  IMDB gives it a 7.2, and I would've given it a slightly lower grade...but not a lot lower.  Still worth checking it out.