DOWN IN THE VALLEY (2005)

Cast

Plot

Tobe is a teenage girl in a dysfunctional American family, but one that appears both realistically normal and deeply embedded in suburbia. This is the landscape of Spielberg, but the family, inadequate father, rebellious daughter and quasi-autistic stepson, seems alienated and distant from the world around it. Into this milieu drifts Harlan, a young man whose roots are at least partially fantasised, part cowboy part movie cliche, and whose reality remains unclear. The pair embark on a romance that threatens her father, captivates her little brother and is destructive to them all. The sparse writing avoids cliche in this subtle, ethereal, independent film that is thought provoking in its mock simplicity.