In Down in the Valley, Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood) is a beautiful, seventeen-something young woman living with her father, Wade (David Morse) and her little brother, Lonnie (Rory Culkin) in today’s San Fernando Valley. Her free-spirited, rebellious, and impulsive nature compels Tobe to invite a much older, cowboy-boot-wearing gas station attendant named Harlan (Edward Norton) to the beach with her and her friends one day after he’s finished filling up their tank. Tobe is intrigued by the mild- mannered, soft-spoken Harlan. Harlan totally enamored after wading through the waves with the fearlessly naïve Tobe. And after just a day by the ocean, Tobe seduces Harlan and the two fall in awkward love. But Tobe has no idea how deep her seduction has penetrated Harlan and just what his captivation with her will conjure up from his past. Harlan’s daemons with his own father impel him to conflict bitterly with Tobe’s over-protective dad, and his troubled, lonely life as a migrant cowpoke spurs him to try and gain control of Tobe and Lonnie like a possessive parent. Paths cross, shots are fired, and relationships are just as easily formed as they are torn apart forever.

Down in the Valley is what I like to call an ‘Evan Rachel Wood film.’ Yes, she is time and again type- casted as the badass, disgruntled teenager, but I never get sick of seeing Wood ball her fists and shake her long, blonde locks in frenzied frustration. This girl not only carries her movies through her starring roles; she lends a distinct essence to each film she graces and emits an air that lingers and gives life to the story even after she’s left the screen. Perhaps it’s only because she has such a stunningly pretty face (even when it’s distorted with discontent) that I can’t take my eyes off Wood when she’s throwing a fit on screen. I think though, it is the caliber of Wood’s acting that superbly and completely contoured the character of Tobe, a girl who too quickly falls in love and too slowly comes to her horrified senses about the type of man she’s fallen for. Wood is a gem to be found Down in the Valley.

…So too is Rory Culkin, who plays Tobe’s impressionable and even more naïve little brother, Lonnie. Culkin subtly exudes the brilliant timing and sensitive expression which I’ve come to know him for in other films such as 2004’s Mean Creek. I was no less impressed by David Morse’s portrayal of Tobe’s helplessly disconnected, yet no less devoted, father and Edward Norton’s take on the film’s manically disillusioned anti-hero, Harlan.

The problem with Down in the Valley is the story, which stretches tightly to a well-developed zenith and then snaps back on itself and flies in every which direction before pulling itself together for a loosely tied and melodramatic end. The movie tries to do too much in a too long two hour, five minute time slot, and more than once I found the plot drowning in water it never should have jumped into in the first place. In the end though, Down in the Valley wins with me, because where so many movies which go off the deep end make me want to cut the reel and go home, Down in the Valley kept me scavenging for answers the entire show.

Liz Licorish
LizFlix@elitestv.com