Down in the Valley

Plot synopsis:
In the San Fernando Valley, rebellious teenager October "Tobe" takes a walk with her younger brother, Lonnie. The next day, Tobe goes to the beach with friends, and when they stop for gasoline, they are assisted by Harlan, a young man who affects a folksy, cowboy style. Tobe invites much-older Harlan to the beach. He accepts, which results in his losing his job. At the beach, they share a passionate kiss and, after returning to Harlan's house, they have sex. He takes her on a date, and the trio get something to eat. Later that night, they go on their "real" date, dancing and meeting up with Tobe's friends for another party, where Harlan takes drugs under the influence of Tobe. She returns home the next day; as she has returned home long after she was expected, Wade, her father, becomes enraged, and she retreats to her room. When she refuses to talk, he pounds on the door and leaves visible damage.
Tobe continues to see Harlan. Her father's rage increases, and he shatters her bedroom window. The romantically involved couple ride a horse that supposedly belongs to one of Harlan's friends named Charlie. Upon returning, Charlie claims he has never met Harlan and that the horse was stolen. The couple are held in police custody until Wade comes to pick up Tobe. She tells Harlan that they should no longer see each other. Harlan, however, is persistent and takes Lonnie shooting without Wade's permission. Wade, who is armed, orders Harlan to leave his children alone.
Mentally unstable, Harlan is evicted from his apartment after shooting at his reflection in a mirror, imagining a Wild West style "shoot-out". After an awkward incident at a local synagogue, where he is abruptly ushered out, he breaks into what is presumably the house of his father or foster father, who is revealed to be a Hasidic Jew. He leaves the letter he has been narrating throughout the film after taking multiple Jewish memorabilia, and the contents of a box, in a closet, inscribed with his name. He breaks into Tobe's house and packs a bag so that they can run away. When Tobe comes home to find him, she is dumbfounded, happy to see him at first. As she slowly realizes he is deranged, she tells him she does not want to leave her family and that he should go. As they argue, Harlan shoots her in the stomach.
When Tobe's father returns home to find Tobe alone on her bed, barely alive, he suspects Harlan, who has failed in an attempt at calling 9-1-1 and run away. Wade rushes Tobe to the hospital, where she is attached to a breathing machine and remains in a coma. Harlan, who is covered in Tobe's blood, then shoots himself in the side to conceal Tobe's blood and also make it look like it was Wade who had shot them. Harlan finds Lonnie and convinces him that it was really Wade who shot Tobe, and that Harlan was wounded while trying to stop him. Tobe regains consciousness at the hospital and Wade realizes that Harlan has taken Lonnie. At night while Harlan and Lonnie are by a fire, Wade, Charlie and a detective named Sheridan arrive. Harlan shoots Charlie before riding off with Lonnie.
They stumble upon a Western film set where shooting has just begun. Wade and Sheridan arrive with two more cops. During the shootout, Harlan guns down detective Sheridan and one of the cops. Harlan and Lonnie escape to a construction site, where Wade finds them and another shootout ensues. Wade shoots Harlan to death to the horror of Lonnie.
Later, Wade drives Tobe and Lonnie to a place where Tobe and Harlan had a pleasant day. Tobe is holding a box that contains her former lover's ashes. Her brother asks her what they should say about him. She replies, "Don't say anything, just think it," and scatters the ashes.

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
The Cowboy character played by Edward Norton seems so simple at first but as he is drawn into the family his character and the truth of his 'being' gradually unravels in ways that left me speechless at the end of the film.
Rory Culkin rounds out the supporting cast showing nice restraint in a confused young boy unable to differentiate good from bad as the good does what seems bad in order to protect and the bad puts on the façade of good to win him over.In the end, the real force of the movie is Edward Norton.
When he ends up in an old west film set and watches the extras dancing and enjoying life in its bear form, the ecstatic look on his face shows it all.
Morse and Norton are so effective in showing the dual nature of their characters that you end up feeling cheated never finding out what happened in their lives to get them to the points they are at when we are introduced to them.
To have a beautifully shot scene of Norton and Wood out in the country with a wonderful transition sequence involving a swing-set and then at the end progress to an outlaw gunfight chase is all at once jarring and effective, and yet insufficiently explained.
He may well be the American Michael Caine, moving between leading man and scene stealing supporting actor in film after film and at a performance level that rarely dips below "spot on." Evan Rachel Wood, while hardly stretching beyond her petulant, teen rebel persona, does a very credible job, as does Rory Culkin as Wood's younger brother.
The film is long (just over two hours), could use some editing, allows a rather pedestrian musical score to cover the dialogue far too frequently, and for much of the film the camera exposure makes everything so sun drenched (even for the San Fernando Valley where the story takes place!) that it feels bleached.
But those aspects feel secondary in the presence of some very fine performances by an excellent cast directed with vision by writer/director David Jacobson.Life is exceedingly boring in the bland town where Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood) and her little brother Lonny (Rory Culkin) live with their sheriff father Wayne (David Morse) - we never know why there is no mother around though Wayne brings in sleepover subs at random.
Tobe has girlfriends with whom she cruises guys and on one afternoon's trip to the beach she meets gas station attendant Harlan (Edward Norton), a drifter who claims to be a rancher form South Dakota and has all the genteel manners of a gentleman raised to respect women.
Harlan's dark side emerges and his cowboy play becomes real, gunshots are fired and the ending of the film is a mélange of old Western movie make-believe and contemporary tragedy of a young man out of joint with his world.Edward Norton gives a stunning portrayal of an out of touch drifter: we never know his background except for suggestions that his childhood was spent in detention homes, foster homes, and other dysfunctional modes of getting by.
The film is not without its flaws (as mentioned above plus more), but it manages to give Edward Norton yet another chance to demonstrate his considerable skills as an actor who can make the most peripheral characters stick in our hearts.
The performances are all top-notch: Norton is excellent as always, and Wood's character Tobe is perhaps the best realization of a teen ever committed to film.
For one thing, it was about 30 minutes too long- from the opening scenes when Tobe (Wood) meets Harlan (Norton) you know two things are guaranteed: they are going to fall in love, and something tragic is going to happen.
Problem is, the director throws in so much unnecessary filler (trippy scenes at a club, repetitive family squabbles) that the focus of the story gets off track.At its heart this film is a character study/slice of life piece.
Tobe, a teenage girl rebelling from her overbearing, violent but caring father Wade (David Morse) and Harlan, a wannabe cowboy with childhood abandonment issues who lives in a delusional world, hook up at a gas station; she is immediately smitten with his "aw shucks" attitude and his focus on her.
You know things are going to turn sour when these twisted lives intertwine, especially when we see that Harlan likes to act out old Westerns in his room, using real six shooters.
But when the tragic events finally do unfold, it's not in the manner I expected, nor hoped; plus the finale drags on to the point where I was praying for it to end already (not a good one to watch after midnight).This one had so much potential, and there WAS a lot to like about the film: the performances were stellar across the board, the cinematography depicted beautiful images of the new San Fernando Valley where it collides with the Old West, and the ideas were ambitious and commendable.
I'm a big fan of Ed Norton, and every single actor held there own, with especially strong performances by David Morse and the lovely Evan Rachel Wood.
In case you want to know the plot synopsis, it's a teeny bubble gum girl who took the gas station cowboy after being fired to the beach and get laid the same day, and a conflict exists between her father who tries to to separate her boyfriend twice her age because of his doubtful character.
I am not sure what caused the delay in its release, but for those of us who appreciate indie film-making and the importance of a decent story, it is well worth catching.Ed Norton's performance is right there with his best work ("Fight Club" and "American History X").
Also, watching Norton play with his guns is fascinating stuff.There is little more I can say about Evan Rachel Wood than what I have said in my comments on her other films ("Thirteen" "Pretty Persuasion", etc).
Watching Wood and Norton and Rory Culkin (so wonderful in "Igby Goes Down) grow into a near family pod is on one hand very cool, while on the other, downright creepy.Taking another in his grinding teeth and jutting jaw Mr. Intensity roles is David Morse, who has come light years from his timid wimp doc role in the fabulous TV series St. Elsewhere.
His character, Harlan, a lonesome yet psychotic cowboy working at a gas station, meets with this girl named Tobe (Wood)and it's love at first sight for both of the two.
This is disapproved by Tobe's father (Morse), who sees another side of Harlan right from the start, and things start to become tense.Edward Norton, he's always impressing the audience with his exceptional talent.
Edward Norton is quite good as Harlan, a drifter with cowboy fantasies, but after two extremely slow hours he seems to be doing a one note performance real well, which is a waste of his mercurial talents.
The screen comes alive when Norton is around doing his aw shucks shtick and also with the great David Morse, excellent as the kids' stepfather or guardian or something; the movie doesn't bother to explain what he is to those kids or why.
Evan R Wood is brilliant as an authentic teen working out stuff about life and boundaries, and uses her intelligence, where Harlan has lost his options in that area and functions off a thin script about life lived from minute to minute - and not in a good way.
Evan Rachel Wood creates a character in Tobe with whom the viewer has great sympathy because she is really a good-hearted teenager looking for her identity.
The naiveté that exists both in Harlan's simplicity and Tobe's youth ignites a brilliant chemistry that has made me unconsciously scout out local gas stations for my own Edward Norton-look alike cowboy to make out with on the way home from the beach.
In the second hour, the claims that the DVD jacket made of Harlan not being who he seemed were revealed without the fanfare or shock the we might more or less expect from an Edward Norton film.
Couple that with the fact that we are led on an uninteresting chase through the hills of the Valley, and this movie ends up leaving you an "oh, well, that was interesting" feeling and a definite craving for the first hour.
October 'Tobe' (Evan Rachel Wood) is a rebellious teen living with brother Lonnie (Rory Culkin) and father Wade (David Morse) in the San Fernando Valley.
The father and daughter relationship deteriorates but Harlan may be troubled as he tries to take her away.It's great to see Norton and Wood play these roles that are well within their range.
At the same corner lives a girl October (played by Evan Rachel Wood) who is stuck where melting concrete and never getting tired streets, a handful of unbothered friends, her, scared and most of the time left alone in his own shadows, younger brother Ronnie (played by Rory Culkin) and Wade (played by David Morse) who acts more like a canary coop keeper than her father is all that surrounds her.
Average!Round-Up: Edward Norton is another one of those actors that looked like he was going to have a promising career, but after some bad choices, his career hasn't been that great.
These kind of issues in the movie are not explained in a good fashion leaving tangling questions in people's minds.And at last at the ending quarter of the movie, Harlan wasn't ready to accept his mistake so he took a kid (Tobe's step brother) with him.
By chance, a lonely, simpleton cowpoke named Harlan (Edward Norton) pops into the life of a California valley girl named Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood).
Maybe it was the character of Wade I didn't like, but I found David Morse irritating as a rarely smiling, unsympathetic dad."Down In The Valley" is the story of an urban drifter who, through his own fantasies and self-image, impacts the lives of a typical urban family.
I really hope Evan Rachel Wood keeps acting in such great movies like this one!
As I have said before, the better and underrated movies are the ones that remain sight unseen.Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, and David Morse lit up the screen like you would not believe.
Edward Norton's performance rates up there with that of 'American History X' and Evan Rachel Wood was somewhat typecast into the same role as the movie 'Thirteen', but that's OK...she did well.
Try and imagine a modern day western film taking place in bustling Los Angeles County, complete with an "Aw-shucks", white hat toting, young man in love with a girl who's not quite of legal age yet, and you'll come close to grasping DOWN IN THE VALLEY.The story is set purely in L.A. as we watch a cowpoke named Harlan (Edward Norton, THE ILLUSIONIST) walk into town wearing Levi's and a frayed rope draped over one shoulder.
Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood, THE MISSING) is a very pretty young high schooler who lives with her burly father Wade (David Morse, 16 BLOCKS) and her clingy brother Lonnie (Rory Culkin, SIGNS).
And Lonnie isn't Wade's son, being an adopted family member but still a significant part of their lives.One sunny day Tobe and her friends pull into a gas station to fuel up and encounter the "for real" cowboy, Harlan.
But when his steady psychological break starts showing, a terrible realization hits the audience; Harlan isn't Harlan at all.The film comes complete with panoramic views of the San Fernando Valley atop lush hills, giving us a truly western feel to the movie, and there's even a quick draw shoot out that'll both entertain and repulse most movie watchers.The only downside is the ending.
Some of the scenes dragged out, which was boring.Edward Norton's is picked up by Evan Rachel Wood aka Tobe at a gas station and invites him to the beach.
Sorry for the late contribution.Edward Norton shines as always and is very intense but restrained in this role, he is joined by stellar performances from Evan Rachel Wood as his slightly too young girl friend and David Morse as her slightly detached but caring father.
You root for Edward - the lost cowboy - and hope by God things will go his way.Although Edward plays a "lost cowboy" this movie is only Western in the sense that it plays in LA: modern day detachedness (if that is a word) played by Rachel meets old fashioned although misguided chivalry by Edward.This is an unbelievable piece of work worthy of more of our praise, no matter how you look at it!.
Edward Norton understates his portrayal of Harlan to the point of making any actual acting on his part nearly invisible for most of the film."Down in the Valley" is an emotionally engaging character piece from start to finish that tells a realistic story about family, love, and humanity in its stifling smog-filled Southern California locale.
The Cowboy character played by Edward Norton (who is amazing) seems so simple at first but as he is drawn into the family his character and the truth unravels in ways that left me at a stand still near the end of the film.
The Cowboy character played by Edward Norton (who is amazing) seems so simple at first but as he is drawn into the family his character and the truth unravels in ways that left me at a stand still near the end of the film.
The Cowboy character played by Edward Norton (who is amazing) seems so simple at first but as he is drawn into the family his character and the truth unravels in ways that left me at a stand still near the end of the film.
Down in the Valley Wow Edward Norton rocks the screen again playing a cowboy with a very layered and subtle performance.
Down in the Valley Wow Edward Norton rocks the screen again playing a cowboy with a very layered and subtle performance.
Down in the Valley Wow Edward Norton rocks the screen again playing a cowboy with a very layered and subtle performance.
Down in the Valley Wow Edward Norton rocks the screen again playing a cowboy with a very layered and subtle performance.
What starts out as a gentle country yarn, inoffensive and mildly enjoyable romantic tale changes pace as Edward Norton's initially charming Harlan gradually reveals more about himself and things take a turn for the sinister, as the film gradually changes from a southern romance to a modern wild western.An amiable rancher (Norton) wanders into town and charms a young girl (Evan Rachel Wood), seemingly rescuing her from a dead-end existence with her bad-tempered father with a whirlwind romance, but it gradually becomes apparent that there is more to this cowboy than meets the eye.Edward Norton  a real chameleon actor (with changing facial hair to match) playing a country hick, accent slightly dodgy but maybe because he's merely trying to act the part without worrying about the accent.
However, with too many small changes it means we are never sure exactly where Harlan is coming from, and what seemed like a good performance from Norton gradually becomes confused.
Evan Rachel Wood is likable without ever really having a great deal to do other than bat her eyelids at Norton.Down in the Valley strikes as a slightly uneven tale due to its change of pace, and by never really making the protagonist's motives clear the audience's sympathies for the characters remain uncertain.
It bored me.A lot.No story,no climax,no anything.I think it's Norton's worst movie.I watched it with my friends,and,at the end,after approximately 2 hours of waiting for something interesting to happen,we looked at each other...and laughed.Why?Because this movie is not interesting at all.I could say it's idiotic and senseless.A lot of unfounded actions,a lot of exaggerated gestures.And the ending...just as disappointing as the rest of the film.It makes you wonder it the film even has a storyline.But it's not the actors' fault.It's the directors'.The actors are good,especially Edward Norton.He really does his job.And since he is my favorite actor,i'm going to give this...thing...6/10.
Starring Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, Rory Culkin, and David Morse.
The boy, girl, her little brother, and a 'stolen' horse all fall in love with the movie western hero ideal as the closest thing to a real father.Westerns are about shoot-outs not raising healthy families at one point the cowboy has to navigate a situation for which he has no movie scene to use as a template.
He plays a delusional drifter who thinks he's a cowboy in the modern day San Fernando Valley, who falls for the beautiful young daughter (great performance Evan Rachel Wood) of David Morse (always consistent).
Edward Norton's surprisingly one-note performance, the same old father-daughter conflict, and the loving close-ups of guns in the protagonist's hands makes it obvious who's going to do the shooting as the film progresses.
Father David Morse doesn't like Norton from the gitgo, but Norton even makes a convert of Ward's younger brother Rory Culkin.It's a strange film, but with some fascinating performances by the cast members, especially Norton.
A good short film might have been made of such scenes, a meditation on what suburban sprawl has done to obliterate nature.I know a fellow (whose father played cowboy bit parts in Hollywood movies many years ago) who tried to create a horse-based life for himself in the Valley.
Later in the film, he meets up with the sexy Tobe, played by Evan Rachel Wood.
Down in the Valley is a movie that features Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, David Morse and Rory Culkin.The story is about a romance between a teenage girl and a thirty-something drifter that takes the young woman down a dangerous and unexpected path in this independent drama.It was written and directed by David Jacobson.Tobe is a pretty 18-year-old whose father, Wade, is the sheriff of a town in California's San Fernando Valley.