This movie got shat on in its reviews, which is a darn pity, since this is the sort of small-film vehicle that Hoffman and Pacino would have used their star power to get funded back in the 1970s.
Except now its the 00s, and its Edward Norton exploring a rather uneasy role that can't win awards now. While awards are given to actors who portray dead famous people, non-controversial parts, or a crippled/homosexual/AIDS-riden/retarded character, Norton gives off the sort of performance that I miss.
What kind of performance? Body language. Sure DOWN IN THE VALLEY's unnecessary expositional dialogue alerts an audience to who this person is, but Norton's eyes and body talk is enough to tell us who he is: A loser who's operable fantasies have slowly become his life, and fall off a damn cliff when he meets up with a groovy emo-girl who herself has some fantasy/reality problems of her own.
