Review of Down in the Valley (2005) by Spencer H — 01 Sep 2007

I wanted to like this movie, and when I watched it, I thought I did. As I look back on it, it just doesn't work. Edward Norton is as good as it gets for this film. They tried to make a Western in modern society and times, and it wasn't stable enough for a two hour film.

Seriously, the first hour was literally watching Norton and Wood make out, which I didn't care for, sure Harlan's (Norton) secret life of crime was interesting, and cool but it just wasn't very realistic.

Wade (Morse) plays like a security guard or something, I mean, so he's involved with the law and that sort of thing, so why didn't anyone do any research on this Harlan guy? He's like a 25-30 year old guy, dating a 17 year old girl.

Sure, Wade is pissed as hell, and doesn't like him, but doesn't do anything about it, until Harlan shoots Tobe (Wood) out of rage in the heat of the moment. Harlan tells Tobe's brother, Lonny, that they were attacked, and Lonny eats up the story like a starving poor boy, and runs away with Harlan.

Then they spring a fast one on you at the end with the fact that Harlan's been lying the whole time about who he is and his name. A little intelligence could have made this movie actually quite good, but sadly it was just quickly thrown together, to make it into the summer lineup, but the acting from Norton and Morse was steller as usual.