"I've tried living down in the valley again. I really tried this time" Kindly thirty-something cowboy throwback Harlan (Norton) finds himself flirting with sixteen year-old Tobe (Wood) when she and her friends stop off to buy some gas. Infatuated with Harlan, Tobe invites him to the beach where they kiss for the first time. Love soon blossoms and Tobe brings Harlan home to meet her overbearing, gun loving father Wade (Morse) and her annoying half-brother Lonnie (Culkin).Harlan and Lonnie quickly bond but Wade is suspicious and forbids Tobe to see him again. With Primal Fear, The People Versus Larry Flint, America History X and Fight Club, Ed Norton hit the ground running and showed us what an actor of immense talent he is, but with ho-hum movies like Keeping The Faith, Red Dragon and The Score, he looks like he's got a stitch lately. Down In The Valley, although never reaching the heights of his former greats, sees Norton return to form in the acting stakes at least. Here he superbly plays a naive man who belongs to another time - when 'folk' were kinder and life was simpler - and his confusion as to why everything isn't they way it should be is really the theme of the film: "I'm not crazy, I'm the only sane man on the planet". Norton's performance drags the viewer in and gets us on his side but as we get to know him and see Harlan living on his own, passing the time playing childish games with loaded guns, we realise that he is not what he seems. Norton has a unique way of turning a wary audience into a sympathetic one despite playing disturbed characters. However, he is let down by Jacobson's ill advised overlong ending as he tries to tie up too many loose ends and his film becomes lopsided as a result.
