Restless 18-year-old October “Tobe” Sommers (Evan Rachel Wood) spends her spring break in the San Fernando Valley looking after her neglected 13-year-old brother Lonnie (Rory Culkin). Her father Wade – played by the terrific David Morse – is a corrections officer. He’s rarely home, so his daughter has developed an acute sense of independence.

On the way to the beach with her friends, Tobe meets a charming drifter (Edward Norton) who pumps gas at a filling station. He tells her that he’s never been to the beach. Taken in by his polite, “aw shucks” manner, Tobe invites him to go with her.

He reveals his name is Harlan Fairfax Carruthers. Pieces of his history are revealed as the story progresses. He says he was born in South Dakota and has worked as a ranch hand, mainly in California. Tobe devours him, but Lonnie is also won over when Harlan takes him down to a concrete river basin on a horse, where they shoot bottles with real .45 caliber six-shooters.

Wade gets a look at Harlan and doesn’t like what he sees. The cops detain Harlan and Tobe over a dispute with a rancher (Bruce Dern) who claims Harlan took off with one of his horses. Wade tells his daughter she’s not to see him again. When Harlan comes back to apologize, dad runs him off by putting one of his prized antique pistols to the cowboy’s head. Tobe and Lonnie remain mesmerized by him, but it becomes clear that Harlan is not who they think he is.

Written and directed by David Jacobson, Down In The Valley was the sophomore feature from the native of Van Nuys. Shot on an $8 million, independently financed budget, it received generally favorable reviews, but only a limited release. While decidedly noncommercial, the only thing that disappoints me here is that it didn’t receive visible promotion from its distributor, ThinkFilm.

For all the talk from certain filmmakers about how enamored they are with the golden age of ’70s cinema, Down In The Valley beautifully succeeds at recreating the character driven, experimental vibe of that era, without being a tribute act. There are echoes of Midnight Cowboy, Badlands and Taxi Driver here, but only to the degree a film nerd can detect. Jacobson wrote an original, contemporary script about isolation, and a delusional charmer who craves a simpler, more civil world.

Edward Norton. What’s brilliant about him this time around is how we’re never sure if what Harlan is saying is true, or complete bullshit. He could either be a real gentleman, or a degenerate con artist, we’re never really sure. Evan Rachel Wood, who was 17 when this was shot, reminded me a lot of Nicole Kidman – back when she was acting – and is luminescent. Morse and Culkin are the best character actors for their age groups out there and prove it here.

Director of photography Enrique Chediak – who lit Boiler Room – frames the picture in some of the most gorgeous widescreen anamorphic shots I’ve seen in a long time. Just check out the screen captures posted here. Spellbinding. The musical score is by Peter Salett, who performs several low key folk songs on the soundtrack. His music goes a long way in lending an introspective, melancholy mood to the film.

The script does feel a bit underwritten. Generally speaking, it’s more of a question mark than a period and asks the viewer to set the table in a lot of instances. Morse and Culkin’s characters are sketches, while Elizabeth Pena, who is credited among the cast, must have had all of her scenes deleted because I never spotted her at all.

It was interesting that, like Fight Club, Norton’s character is again excluded by the modern world and uses fantasy to try to create his own sense of order. This film demands a certain patience too, but is equally rewarding. Briefly featuring Geoffrey Lewis as a cop, and Kat Dennings – the teenager from The 40-Year-Old Virgin – as Tobe’s punchy friend. Highly recommended.