Movie Review - In The Valley Of Elah

I don't think this movie is available yet on dvd. Below is my review based on seeing it in the theater. I still await someone to tell me what the ending meant, so please feel free to comment on it.

Man gets a phone call that his son in the army has gone awol. He knows his son would never do that, so he goes searching for him. His son's body is then found mutilated, so he does his own investigation to find out what happened.

This was a good military drama and it keeps you mesmerized with the characters to find out what they're noticing and what they're learning as you go from scene to scene. (Like where he says to the cop when they're standing at the crime scene "by the way, you should tell them they need to be looking for a blue car, not a green car, because under this yellow light, a blue car looks green....doesn't it?"....and you're sitting there agreeing with him but you wouldn't have really noticed it had he not brought it to your attention.) What I found most noticeable about this movie was the score....or should I say lack of. There are so many moments where in a typical drama you would have some kind of dramatic or creepy or solemn type of song playing in the background but there was nothing but silence as he pulls up into the driveway and then enters the house or as she's sitting at the table deciding whether or not to open the package. It was a bit odd and uncomfortable, so perhaps that's why it was done that way.

I liked this movie and would watch it again, but I want someone to explain to me what the ending meant. Another movie where I didn't like the ending. Again, not wanting to give it away, but basically, through the entire movie they show that the army man is still very much inside of him as he polishes his shoes before going to bed and tucks the covers under perfectly to make it before he leaves the hotel in the morning and even looks the topless woman in the eyes the entire time he's talking to her...yet he does something very unpatriotic at the end and you are supposed to feel like he is sending a message by what he is doing and you are supposed to think that what he has done is patriotic somehow. ? Granted, I don't know much about military procedures, but I'm 99% sure that had anyone else done what he did, they would be deemed unpatriotic (and possibly carted off to jail.?) (So, please, someone see this movie and tell me what it means.?)

Vixy :]