Think "In the Heat of the Night" adapted to the Iraq War -- sharp outsider shows the good ole boys how to conduct an investigation. Or Erin Brockovich, this time taking on the US Army.

Tommy Lee Jones, a retired military investigator, may have been hauling gravel for the twenty years since he took his pension, but single-handed he can still find more useful evidence in five minutes than a squad of active professionals working overtime. He is also the stereotype of the loyal ex-soldier who still lives in the military after years on civvy street. He's so bottled up that he can scarcely speak.

Charlize Theron is the courageous detective who tries to ignore the sexist boors she works with because she's the only one in the office who is willing to Seek The Truth.

Susan Sarandon does an unnecessary turn as a grieving military mother, unnecessary because the plot could proceed perfectly well without her. Stoking up the emotional fires seems to be her character's principal raison d'etre.

It's never clear what exactly brought about Mike Deerfield's gruesome murder. Because the final explanation we're offered may still be the Army's lie, we don't find out who's responsible. Like a wasp in a jar, George W. Bush drones on in the background, making press statement after press statement proclaiming steady progress in Fallujah. Subtle? Ahh, nope.

Nor is there any subtlety in the mawkish final scene, so weighted with heavy symbolism (carefully explained long beforehand, as to children) that Jones needs several layers of duct tape to keep it in place. ( )

Anti war film hardly says it, but nothing much more to say. The film is about what the war has done to the country. I hope someone in Iraq is making a film about their point of view too.