David Jacobson’s “Down in the Valley” will kick-off the 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival (June 16 – June 26) as the Opening Night Film.
Starring Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, David Morse, Rory Culkin, and Bruce Dern, “Down in the Valley” is a suspenseful crime story set at the edge of the San Fernando Valley, a seedy place of horse ranches and immigrant gangs, where ten-lane freeways converge to create a cultural no man’s land. A rebellious high school senior Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood) and her anemic 11-year old brother Lonnie (Rory Culkin) struggle to escape their grim and hopeless existence and their overbearing father, Wade (David Morse). Their hoped-for deliverance comes in the form of Harlan, a charming, yet mercurial man (Edward Norton) who thinks he’s a cowboy. Everyone believes the fantasy Harlan has constructed except for Wade, and when he forbids Harlan’s and Tobe’s love affair, Harlan is pushed over the edge. As his dark side emerges, the hoped-for deliverance turns into chaotic violence. Tobe’s and Lonnie’s fantasies are dashed but their reality, in the end, seems more hopeful.
For more info, visit the Los Angeles Film Festival website.
