Down in the Valley is a 2005 American neo-western drama film starring Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, David Morse and Rory Culkin.

The next day, Tobe goes to the beach with friends, and when they stop for gas, they are assisted by Harlan, a young man who affects a folksy, cowboy style.

Harlan is revealed to be mentally unstable, getting evicted from his apartment after shooting at his reflection in a mirror, imagining a Wild West-style "shootout".

After an awkward incident at a local synagogue, where he is abruptly ushered out, he breaks into what is presumably the house of his father, who is revealed to be a Hasidic Jew.

He leaves the letter he has been narrating throughout the film after taking valuable religious silver pieces and the contents of a box in a closet inscribed with the name Marty and containing photos of himself as a child.

[citation needed] The website's consensus reads, "The premise of Old West clashing with modern suburbia is fresh and initially intriguing, but the second act degenerates into a clumsy jumble of events which strain credibility.

"[2] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

[3] American movie critic Roger Ebert expressed mixed feelings about the film in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times.

On the one hand, he noted several qualities "that make me happy to have seen it", especially the nuanced acting performance of Edward Norton and the "peculiar loneliness" of his character Harlan.

On the other hand, Ebert took issue with the film's ending which he found to be implausible and driven too much by the abstract idea behind the plot instead of the characters in it.