Down in the Valley
THINKFilm | Release Date: May 5, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
It's mysterious and bold at every turn, and refreshingly removed from the commonplace. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Down in the Valley is exactly what we don't have enough of: It's singular, unusual, unexpected, fresh and familiar at once. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Down in the Valley is a wild thing that sticks with you long after it's over. You know, a real movie. Read full review
88
PremiereGlenn Kenny
The movie belongs to Wood, who creates a unique portrait of a girl hesitating at the threshold of womanhood; she's smarter, more attuned, and more spiritually ambitious than those around her, but also too decent and loyal to break from the world she knows-and too unformed to have a grasp of what she wants outside of that world. It's fantastic work. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Driven by Edward Norton's and Evan Rachel Wood's riveting performances, writer-director David Jacobson's tense drama samples bits of cinematic Americana from sources as diverse as "Shane," "Badlands" and "Taxi Driver." Read full review
83
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Odd, beautiful and ambitious film. Read full review
83
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Jacobson and his actors do so much with the characters that they leave an ambiguous residue of blood-streaked regrets and sadness. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The best thing about Down in the Valley is that you hope it's not going where you have an inkling it's going. The purity of Norton's madness is a wonder. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
A psychotic we can't help falling for, Edward Norton's beautifully drawn and richly nuanced dreamer could, in time, prove to be one of the most memorable movie characters of recent years. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Writer-director David Jacobson has a good eye for widescreen compositions and sustains a low-key note of dread but is less successful in his attempt to graft a neo-Western to a neo-noir. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
Jacobson, whose earlier film is a docudrama about Jeffrey Dahmer, is clearly fascinated with men who would be monsters. It's a ripe and infinite topic to explore, but without Norton, theme alone could not have sustained Down in the Valley. Read full review
70
VarietyScott Foundas
Result is imperfect and overlong, but hugely ambitious and often breathtaking. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Begins semirealistically, then veers off course, hurtling into the wild blue yonder of myth and allegory. On the way to a climactic shootout that begins on the set of a Hollywood western and ends on a foggy hillside, it makes several screeching, hairpin turns. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
Writer-director David Jacobson has an excitingly clear-eyed, unsentimental feel for the intensity of adolescent passion. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The performances are deep and rich -- Wood is coming to seem like a smarter Chloe Sevigny, Rory looks to be the Culkin with talent, and Norton's portrayal of Harlan aches with ambiguity. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
When a movie begins to present one implausible or unwise decision after another, when its world plays too easily into the hands of its story, when the taste for symbolism creates impossible scenes, we grow restless. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
As it progresses, the film takes us to another borderland, that between reality and delusion. This is where Harlan's mind freely gallops. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Down in the Valley is one of those pictures you root for even when it goes badly wrong. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Down in the Valley becomes increasingly harder to believe as it goes along, with people behaving in ways that strain credibility. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesMark Olsen
For a film that has allegedly undergone extensive tinkering following its premiere at last year's Cannes Film Festival, Down in the Valley abounds in nagging loose ends and suffers overall from logy pacing. Read full review
60
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
What keeps us watching? Chiefly it is Edward Norton's performance as Harlan. It is hard to doubt his belief in everything he says, no matter how silly or dangerous it sounds. Read full review
60
Film ThreatFelix Vasques Jr.
An original and utterly unconventional tragedy of fantasy and reality, and the potential lethal results of worlds colliding. Ed, glad to have you back. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The film is thrown off balance by the weight of Norton's compassion for this troubled soul. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Edward Norton serves as lead actor and producer, but even his star power won't help this misfire reach a wide domestic audience. Read full review
50
Village VoiceRob Nelson
Like "Don't Come Knocking," this contrived lament for the lonesome cowboy means to measure what remains of the old western in the absence of the Old West, eventually plopping its displaced ranch hand protagonist onto the fake Main Street of an old western movie set just to make sure we don't miss any of the cine-mythic connotations. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
Sucker-punches you. It appears to be an engagingly sweet romance, but it's really just about other movies. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The movie turns into something strange and annoying, an attempted blend of a suburban thriller with an Old West shoot-'em-up. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
While Jacobson navigates the first half of Down in the Valley deftly, he loses his way in the second. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
As long as Norton plays Harlan as a modern-day Joe Buck, a kind of four-in-the-afternoon cowboy, we're drawn by his waltz of innocence and vagueness. But Down in the Valley turns out to be one of those films with a thick, gummy overlay of Western ''mythology.'' Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Both actors work hard to give this disturbing crime story some flavor and substance, but the narrative is overextended and poorly organized. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
In the end, it's really just a thriller, slower than most, with pockets of dead time but with a few extra flourishes, too, thanks to Norton. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
It feels mechanical, more conceptual than realized, like a senior project by a particularly ambitious student who's recently read "West of Everything" – and who's lucked into working with a world-class actor. Read full review
40
EmpireIan Nathan
Never has the term 'American Independent' so obviously been code for 'wholly miserable experience'. Read full review
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