Down in the Valley

Name: Down in the Valley
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Romance
Released: May 5, 2006
Duration: 114 min
Rating: 65
Cast: David Morse, Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood

2006

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Ratings

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6.6

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6.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Ratings

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Down In The Valley

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Movie Details & Credits

THINKFilm | Release Date: May 5, 2006 | R

Starring: David Morse, Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood

Summary: When Harlan Carruthers (Norton), a charismatic cowboy who seems as if he would be much more at home in Monument Valley than in the San Fernando Valley, has a chance encounter with Tobe (Wood), a bored and restless suburban teenager, both of their lives are turned upside down. (ThinkFilm)

Director: David Jacobson

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 114 min

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Critic Reviews

Scott Tobias

It's mysterious and bold at every turn, and refreshingly removed from the commonplace. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Ken Fox

Driven by Edward Norton's and Evan Rachel Wood's riveting performances, writer-director David Jacobson's tense drama samples bits of cinematic Americana from sources as diverse as "Shane," "Badlands" and "Taxi Driver." Read full review

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

A psychotic we can't help falling for, Edward Norton's beautifully drawn and richly nuanced dreamer could, in time, prove to be one of the most memorable movie characters of recent years. Read full review

Carrie Rickey

As it progresses, the film takes us to another borderland, that between reality and delusion. This is where Harlan's mind freely gallops. Read full review

Stanley Kauffmann

What keeps us watching? Chiefly it is Edward Norton's performance as Harlan. It is hard to doubt his belief in everything he says, no matter how silly or dangerous it sounds. Read full review

Rob Nelson

Like "Don't Come Knocking," this contrived lament for the lonesome cowboy means to measure what remains of the old western in the absence of the Old West, eventually plopping its displaced ranch hand protagonist onto the fake Main Street of an old western movie set just to make sure we don't miss any of the cine-mythic connotations. Read full review

Empire Ian Nathan

Never has the term 'American Independent' so obviously been code for 'wholly miserable experience'. Read full review

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User Reviews

Orson

Jun 9, 2006

Why don't people "get" this picture? Because they're too dense to believe in a delusional psychotic cowboy that isn't as technicolor as the villains in "Silence of The Lambs"? Could be. [***SPOILERS***] Mores the pity, because while I once met the real-life FBI serial murder Why don't people "get" this picture? Because they're too dense to believe in a delusional psychotic cowboy that isn't as technicolor as the villains in "Silence of The Lambs"? Could be. [***SPOILERS***] Mores the pity, because while I once met the real-life FBI serial murder profiler the latter film was based on, nobody will ever met a fictional sociopath like Dr. Lecter. By contrast, you and me and everyone else are very likely to meet, or already know, a small-time burglar who might graduate to serious life altering trouble with almost innocent intentions. Why? Because of their delusions - and there are many many people around us living with them. What Roger Ebert and others call the films "missteps" are actually efforts to take us inside the mind of a psychotic, to tease us with suggestions of his inner voices, visions, and vulnerably suffused ego-defenses. This is what makes the film so fascinating, while others simply don't get it. Although someone dies with their boots on, it simply isn't a film that tries to marry a Western with neo-noir (as the Christian Science Monitor critic put it). Rather, the story updates Kirk Douglas in "Lonely Are The Brave," marrying him with Laura Dern in "Smooth Talk." Yet, it also begins with and goes to different places than either could have. For one thing, Tobe is the seducer, not the seduced! For another, she is forced to play the adult repeatedly, as in so many broken homes, to the two protagonists dominating her life - her dad and her lover. As the Baltimore Sun's perceptive critic Michael Sragow says: "Through much of Down in the Valley," the film-makers "do exactly what movie artists should do: transport audiences to risky places with deceptive ease, gliding on feeling and intuition." Harlan "creates a walking pocket of calm in the dull suburban roar" that is Tobe's life. I'm seduced. And I can't wait to see it again.… Expand