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"They shouldn't send heroes to a place like Iraq."

Of the many powerful moments in the Paul Haggis film "In the Valley of Elah," the uttering of this sentence stands out. It comes brazen from the lips of a soldier freshly home from the front lines (such as they are). He caps his thoughts with the assertion that, if you want his opinion, the United States ought to nuke the war-torn country and let it start over from ashes.

The film is a scathing indictment of America's war in Iraq. It's heavy with grief, with all that weight pressing down - Atlas-like - onto the shockingly capable shoulders of Tommy Lee Jones, in what has to be his finest performance ever.

Jones plays Hank Deerfield, ex-Army man. Hank journeys to New Mexico to find his soldier son Mike, who has gone AWOL. When Mike's body is found diced and burned in a scraggly field of weeds, Hank refuses to let the investigation proceed without him. A compelling mystery unfolds. Some soldiers and area drug dealers are the prime suspects.

Things don't conclude neatly for anyone. "Elah" isn't a whodunit. Its ice-cold plot concerns the war's effect on the boys sent to fight, and how parents respond to losing a son. (The Valley of Elah in the title refers to the battleground where David slew Goliath. Why would a boy put himself in harm's way like that, the film asks, and how many boys were killed before David fired the legendary rock into the Philistine's forehead?)

Jones breaks your heart. An early scene brings a serviceman to his hotel room with the terrible news of his son. The soldier is washed-over in white light, saluting without a single distinguishable feature. Jones' reaction is as perfect a moment as any actor could muster. He's devastated, but there are questions he demands be answered.

"Elah" isn't perfect, but it matters. And Jones' performance is a tribute both to Iraq war families and his chosen profession.