How the Wild West grew up

DOWN IN THE VALLEY
Directed by David Jacobson
Certificate 15

DOWN In The Valley has the feel of John Steinbeck’s classic novel Tortilla Flat.
Steinbeck created a southern Californian world where there is no tomorrow, a sleepy town full of drifters whose imaginations allowed them to ignore the hard reality of their lot: in Down In The Valley, lead man Ed Norton’s character is a drifter whose cowboy fantasy is his reality.
Norton is carving a niche for himself, straying from sappy Hollyowood flicks. He has managed to marry intelligent film choices with box office success.
Down In the Valley, is based in San Fernando in California. Harlan Carruthers escapes the surroundings of a worn-out suburbia by living a life of a cowboy. In reality he looks after the petrol pumps at a dusty garage.
It is a bleak world and a bleak job – so bleak that when the shapely Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood) pulls up for some petrol and asks him to tag along for a day trip to the beach, he doesn’t need a second invitation, even though it means abandoning his job.
It doesn’t take long for his charms to win over Tobe. It appears she too is looking for an escape from her surroundings.
But of course nothing is smooth when true love beckons. Tobe’s father – who happens to be a rather sceptical cop – doesn’t buy Norton’s story about being a former ranch hand from Dakota.
And it soon becomes apparent that Norton’s life is a fantasy.
This is a tale of a modern interpretation of the American dream, and a modern West, blighted by all night shopping malls and suburb homes.
Carruthers is a kaledascope of emotions. At first he is charming – then he turns menacing. His ability to portray the mixed feelings of delusional psyche shows his full range as an actor.