Some things I liked some I did not.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

When you see through his look full of lonesome sadness and disappointment as that concrete bridge with buzzing highway is nothing more than a soiled footprint imprinted at the out-crying Valley with its burning rattle in your brain, you know…it's a film about a beautiful sorrow dream. A dream which is still hopelessly followed by the sick ones to whom that dream is the only thing that can be lost and those who observes it as something interesting to look at behind that thick, mind-proof glass. Harlan (played by Edward Norton) is one of those sick ones, which finds his way into the one of the corners of that big city drowned in a smog of laziness. With his childlike naivety, Harlan wanders around as someone from the Old West who accidentally woke up with a permanent memory loss in that bitter present where the place for his ideals and views has no space left. At the same corner lives a girl October (played by Evan Rachel Wood) who is stuck where melting concrete and never getting tired streets, a handful of unbothered friends, her, scared and most of the time left alone in his own shadows, younger brother Ronnie (played by Rory Culkin) and Wade (played by David Morse) who acts more like a canary coop keeper than her father is all that surrounds her. As she lifts her eyes to the blue sky where passing through plane drags her look with a need to leave, you can feel that longing so clear as it is your own eyes which follows that same plane. It's a story about how these two meet each other and everything which comes along with it… Cinematography makes you taste that polluted dust in your mouth and to emphasize through the same dreamlike blur mundanity that film characters do. Sometimes it's so bright that it almost starts to burn your eyes, which helps a lot for someone like me who has never been there. With the same childish naivety now I feel that I did. Soundtrack even more wraps you around with that "lost-to be found" atmosphere. The songs of Peter Salett filled with heart shattering tenderness and fragility sharply reflects the feelings portrayed in the film. As well, those few of Mazzy Star which gets you high by watching Harlan and October drifting through the night life of the Valley. Rory Culkin's vulnerability expresses how the child surrounded by an environment in which everything what separates good and bad are whirling in the same ruthless and twisted whirlwind just as some unnoticeable piece of paper tissue on the street curb. David Morse brings the differ greatness with his character's strict force directed at times so wrongly which brakes him by its own struggle to raise children, which are already swallowed by the abyss of reality in which there is nothing childlike anymore. Flawless chemistry between Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood in this heady modern western romantic drama leaves the itchy scar inside you. Even it hurts, you can't stop scratching

*** This review contains spoilers***IMDb's database on this movie lists as "goofs", continuity relating to the Edward Norton's beard, which makes drastic changes during the film's final scenes. Ranging from a heavy five-a- clock shadow to a Village People-type cowboy goatee, the beard completely disappears by the finale. (This in a climactic pursuit that would present a problem for any shaver.) Rather like the uncertainty of the star's beard the whole movie's focus makes startling changes as you view. These changes stretch from the potential portrayal of a Cowboy Rom-Com plot, to a potentially "mad killer in your midst" horror scenario. This is all played alongside a vague portrayal to an end of the cowboy dream, as a result of the incursion of modern day technologies. The cowboy rides his horse along some high ridge and in the background looms up an electricity pylon. Additionally, gridlocked six lane freeways hint more heavily that Wild West ways are certainly obsolete. These scenes succeed in making the hero a huge anomaly in the contemporary milieu he is portrayed living in. Add a Father, of his misunderstood teenage girlfriend, who is a hard denigrating, foul-mouthed collector of guns and these themes succeed in creating an eclectic mix of attitudes. These characters, and more, have to be continually deciphered as the movie unfolds. Is it really clear what is intended? Should we side with Father as the paternal protector of his young susceptible nubile, daughter? Or, with the wonderful pastiche of the Marlboro Cowboy in all his glory; a portrayal, which is well and truly discarded when the cowboy expertly gun-slings a bullet into his lover's stomach. This continual change of direction during this movie creates a continuous rhythm of ambiguity and conflict. Do we plump for the young earnest male lover, or the concerned father, or even the rights of the beautiful female focus for their protection. As soon as we decide the story makes us change our mind. This style continues right to the end of the movie. Having proved to be a man who has serious problems coping with reality, the two members of the family who were affected most by the faded cowboy ideal, cast his gunslinger ashes into the romantic Wild West winds. When you leave the film theatre you have every right to question the sense of this last scene. And like the rest of the film you will have had trouble deciding on anyone's rightful position and where your loyalties lie. If this is intentional then the Director has succeeded admirably in taking the viewer on a roller-coaster of deceitful signals. If not, then the film lacked a cohesive plot and focus in favour of a less ambiguous theme. (This would have made the film far less interesting.) What type of beard should the film wear?

search of life sense. masks. a strange love story. fiction as skin. ash of a Don Quijote.story of refuges, lies and small world. shadows of innocence and ladder of expectations. summer adventure and limits of images. a sunny gray film and impressive levels of acting. a film like a labyrinth. long, common, boring. at first sight. bitter tale of a looser. in essence, picture of a world. pieces of mirror in which fake cowboy is, in same measure, every character.a puzzle with too many parts.a trip in sensitivity of a universe without heroes. slice of deep America or only exercise of survive. ball of questions with unspoken answers. and ash of a meeting.

What starts out as a gentle country yarn, inoffensive and mildly enjoyable romantic tale changes pace as Edward Norton's initially charming Harlan gradually reveals more about himself and things take a turn for the sinister, as the film gradually changes from a southern romance to a modern wild western.An amiable rancher (Norton) wanders into town and charms a young girl (Evan Rachel Wood), seemingly rescuing her from a dead-end existence with her bad-tempered father with a whirlwind romance, but it gradually becomes apparent that there is more to this cowboy than meets the eye.Edward Norton – a real chameleon actor (with changing facial hair to match) playing a country hick, accent slightly dodgy but maybe because he's merely trying to act the part without worrying about the accent. He certainly makes it appear effortless to make all the nuanced little adjustments as we learn more about Harlan. However, with too many small changes it means we are never sure exactly where Harlan is coming from, and what seemed like a good performance from Norton gradually becomes confused. Evan Rachel Wood is likable without ever really having a great deal to do other than bat her eyelids at Norton.Down in the Valley strikes as a slightly uneven tale due to its change of pace, and by never really making the protagonist's motives clear the audience's sympathies for the characters remain uncertain. Should we like this drifter or not? Even after a dramatic turn of events it remains unclear. This ambiguity is to the film's detriment, as if the writer could not make up their mind what kind of story they wanted to tell and settled for somewhat of a hotch-potch. Had the film remained one or the other it might have been a solid film, but as it is what we are left with is something of a mess. Fans of old-fashioned romance will enjoy a portion of the film but will be put off by the darkening tone. Completist fans of Norton aside (or fans of the lush scenery of the San Fernando valley), give this a miss.