2 Days in the Valley (1996)
In a sleepy bedroom community of LA's San Fernando Valley, the murder of a professional athlete by two hit men sets into motion a chain of events that puts the mundane lives of a dozen residents on a collision course. This clever tale tells the story of two hit men, a mistress, a nurse, a vindictive ex-wife, a wealthy art dealer and his lovelorn assistant, a suicidal writer and his dog, and a bitter cop and his partner.
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It's a nice drama film but threads are picked up and dropped without adding to the plot. This is distracting and makes you wonder what was chopped out during editing to "tighten up" the movie. It's not that long, though (104 minutes) and scenes have been obviously reshot, so I think they simply ran out of money.For example, the "tough cop" played by Daniels receives a lot of screen time at first but then simply gets a letter stating that he has been dropped from active duty and oh, by the way, could he please turn in his gun and badge? Not only are those things done in person, we never see Daniels again. His character really isn't needed for the plot if he can be dropped without affecting it! Then there is the assassin, who gleefully shoots everyone at the drop of a hat but decides to knock out Stoltz's character instead. If Stoltz is needed alive later in the movie then why not have him escape, or shot but just wounded? You know the plot requires him later when Spader's character just bops him on the head.There are other problems as well, but I'm sure you'll notice them if you decide to watch. You just have to leave it up to sloppy writing/editing or really, really suspend your disbelief. :/
'2 days in the valley' is, as many films are, modeled after the work of Quentin Tarantino. A complicated crime story mixed with a lot of (near absurd) comedy on a deadpan level. And this one, like some others do as well, gets away with it. There are plenty of fun characters, the entanglements are fun and at times even pretty original, and the actors do pretty good jobs, especially Danny Aiello, Gregg Cruttwell, Jeff Daniels, James Spader and Charlize Theron - though I have no specific complaints about anyone in particular.A crime story, as said, and with a lot of comedy, but, also, there are some dramatic touches here and there, which pushes '2 days...' into the sentimental, but never too much. Nearing the end, there are a few too many happy coincidences for my taste, but alas.7 out of 10.
Well-written story with odd characters, intricate plot, and some callous but not excessive blood-letting. I don't want to give anything away, but this is one of those movies with a bunch of interlocking stories that come together and resolve at the end. There isn't a weak performance in the ensemble cast and the script is likewise pretty much rock solid. It was also really nice to see Spader before he got too chunky--he always had that doughy look and lately he's been looking anything other than svelte. A total treat which only makes you wonder why we suffer from such a dearth of good movies today, given that this dates way back to 1996 and there has been plenty of time to do at least as well.
2 days in the Valley tries to go for the Quentin Tarantino dollar with a crime story with interlinked characters that starts off with a murder in the LA valley.James Spader is the smart and ruthless assassin. It is hard to think that he is the old, balding man from The Blacklist. His accomplice is Charlize Theron in an early role looking blond and hot and she has a memorable tiff with Teri Hatcher who is a one time Olympian whose ex has been murdered.Jeff Daniels plays a racist detective who is trying to get Eric Stoltz to bust Chinese massage parlours. Danny Aiello plays a fall guy, Paul Mazursky is an over the hill filmmaker fallen on hard times.The film needed a more darkly comic edge but it works sufficiently well enough as a thriller with some twists, despicable villains and a few people with heart even if they are on the wrong side of the law.