In The Valley of Elah

Directed by Paul Haggis
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, James Franco, Jason Patric
Director: Paul Haggis
Studio: Warner Bros.
Release date: 9/21/07

content from wikipedia:
In the Valley of Elah is a 2007 film written and directed by Paul Haggis, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon, and Charlize Theron. The film premiered September 1, 2007 at the Venice Film Festival and was later shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. It opened in limited release in the United States on September 14, 2007 and will open in the United Kingdom on January 18, 2008.

The film tells the story of war veteran Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones), his wife Joan (Susan Sarandon) and the search for their son Mike (Jonathan Tucker), a soldier who recently returned from Iraq but has mysteriously gone missing, and the police detective (Charlize Theron) who helps in the investigation. Although the story has been fictionalized and the names have been changed, the plot hews very closely to the story of Richard Davis, an Iraq War veteran murdered upon his return home in 2003. Richard Davis’s father Lanny Davis, a former military police officer who mounted his own investigation into the crime like the Tommy Lee Jones character, told the Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus, Ga. that he enjoyed the film. “It really is a very entertaining movie,” he said. “And those who don’t know the real facts of the case will probably really like it.” Davis expressed concern, however, that Haggis changed the motivations of the murderers from what Davis believed them to be.

A 2004 report by Mark Boal in Playboy on Richard Davis’s murder, entitled “Death and Dishonor,” inspired Haggis. Davis’s story was also told in an episode of the CBS News program 48 Hours, summarized here.

Trailer