Fine, fine ... I forgive you for that Two-Face performance in that one Batman movie: "In the Valley of Elah"

This movie made me mad in two ways: One, war really IS hell, so when we engage in one without a good reason, well, that sucks. Two, the Oscar folks clearly don't know sh*t when this movie gets snubbed in favor of dreck like "Juno" for a Best Picture nom. (And I heard "Atonement" wasn't any great shakes, either.)

(OK, a third way: Bad title. Even when we find out what it means, it still makes this sound like some Euro art-house crap. Boo.)

Tommy Lee Jones plays a retired military police officer whose son is serving in Iraq. Then his son's squad/platoon comes back, and dad hasn't heard from junior. Before long, we learn the boy is back but no longer breathing, and the military isn't being all that forthcoming about how the guy died. That leads Jones to work with a local cop (Charlize Theron) on finding the truth, which becomes even tougher as Jones learns more about what his son went through in Iraq.

This may seem like a simple murder mystery involving the military, but as we all know, nothing is as it seems. Paul Haggis of "Crash" fame wrote the screenplay and directed, and some real issues about who is a victim and who is really at fault are raised, providing plenty of chances for all sorts of characters to get indignant.

Besides Jones and Theron, the solid cast includes Susan Sarandon as Jones' wife and Jason Patric as a military police liaison, plus Josh Brolin, Barry Corbin and James Franco in small roles. There's also a guy named Wes Chatham who I had never seen before but absolutely crushes his role as a guy who served with Jones' son. Watch him all the way through. It's worth it.

As for the two leads, Jones got the Oscar nom and earned it. While he doesn't exactly expand his range, he doesn't overact and gives the appropriate amount of depth and pathos. (Big word, I know.) I bought his performance almost all the way through, even if the end was a little too much. Theron's about as good, which makes sense. I mean, she's been nominated for two Oscars and won one. And while she tries to appear plain here and do the single mom thing, she's still hot. Love. Her.

So yeah, good acting, good story, some real drama .... hard to find too much wrong with this movie. The more we learn, the more anxious we become, and I'm not spoiling anything to say there's no happy ending. Still, a powerful film worth seeing, especially considering Jones gets through two hours without ordering a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in the area.