Review of Down in the Valley (2005) by Ben R — 12 Apr 2008

This was a film that I neither was looking forward to a great deal nor avoiding seeing. I haven't seen it until now because I just simply hadn't gotten round to it yet. And with the exception of some impressive aspects (namely the acting) I have to be honest in saying I didn't think all that much of this film.

The main draw of this film for me was Edward Norton. He is one of, if not the best actors working today, nothing I have seen him in so far has been anything less than outstanding. So naturally I was expecting greatness from his performance here. And although there was something very flowing and natural about his performance I am sorry to say I was a little dissapointed by it. Partly because of my high expectations, partly because I just feel he didn't push himself to his full potential like I hoped. But I guess the main reason he wasn't outstanding for me here is because frankly he was upstaged by supporting actor David Morse. I have said many times that Morse is one of the most underrated (almost) seasoned actors out there and here he shines in a role that you both hate and yet sympathise with at the same time. Other supporting actors such as Evan Rachel Wood, who I see a very promising future for, and Rory Culkin, who is also shaping up to be an impressive actor. This is the main thing that kept my interest throughout the film, the performances were quite something, and surprisingly the lesser performance comes from Norton's direction (who ever thought someone could say that?). Don't get me wrong, Norton is perfectly fine here, but he sadly just pales in comparison to the rest of the cast (in my opinion, of course).

The major problem I had with this film was how slow paced, how dreary and a lot of the time how depressing it was. Imagine you are walking somewhere, not needing to get anywhere very fast and that you are pretty bored. So imagine you just plod along, and plod along and plod along some more. The suddenly you might stumble a bit, and then you proceed to plod along very slowly until you reach wherever it is you were going. That's exactly how this movie felt for me. It just plods along for a good 90 minutes, with the other 20 made up of some intense scenes, and then it finishes. Nothing terribly enthrolling happens, with the exception of some key scenes which I won't spoil for you if you haven't seen it.

Maybe this film just caught me in the completely wrong mood, and what I was expecting wasn't what I recieved. This will probably go down well with someone looking to either relax or just get away from whatever is troubling them in their own lives. But for me this is a film that I found to be overly depressing instead of its up front promise of cheeriness. But there is still enough in there to make it at least watchable.