romanorum1 John Herzfeld's film is one of Intersecting narratives set in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley. It chronicles a violent and profane tale of how the lives and deaths of a dozen various people intersect over the course of two days. The director's method is to introduce his characters in seemingly unrelated scenes and then eventually connect them together. The technique has been done before: "American Graffiti" (1973) and "Pulp Fiction" (1994) come to mind.Two hit men, cold-blooded psychopath Lee Woods (James Spader) and faded Dosmo (Danny Aiello), are hired to kill for insurance money the womanizing ex-husband (Ray Foxx = Peter Horton) of scheming Olympic skier Becky Foxx (Teri Hatcher). Despite his lethal line of work," Dosmo shows compassion; he is even afraid of dogs. On the other hand, Lee is a sadist who gives his victims one minute to get their affairs in order. Lee's girl is Helga (Charlize Theron). The subsequent crime scene is somewhat later stumbled upon by two vice cops: quixotic Wes Taylor (Eric Stoltz) and exasperated Alvin Strayer (Jeff Daniels). When the two cops were staking out an Asian massage parlor, Wes refused to arrest lovely Vietnamese girl Midori (Kathleen Luong). Alvin is not happy because he does not want any vice dens in the valley. Unlike Wes, he doesn't want to get involved in a homicide investigation. In the second half of the movie he is ordered to turn in his badge and gun. Later, real homicide detective Creighton (Keith Carradine) is assigned to the case. Obnoxious and patronizing British art dealer Allan Hopper (Greg Cruttwell), who sustains a kidney stone attack in the middle of a busy LA street, is assisted by his dutiful secretary Susan Parish (Glenne Headly). He continually denigrates her with unflattering comments.Down-and-out movie director Teddy Peppers (Paul Mazursky), four months behind in his rent, contemplates suicide but doesn't want to see his beloved dog homeless. At first he decides to shoot him after one last walk in the park. There he meets Ralph Crupi (Austin Pendleton), who, while smiling, proceeds to insensitively criticize Peppers' screen failures. Eventually Peppers resolves to find someone to care for his dog. When he spots compassionate nurse (Audrey Hopper = Marsha Mason) in a cemetery he introduces himself to her. In time we will learn that Audrey is Allan Hopper's half- sister. Kindheartedly, Audrey senses Teddy's distress and brings him to her brother's house. Meanwhile, after the hit, Lee shoots Dosmo so that he can have the insurance payment all to himself. Dosmo, though, is smarter than he seems and correctly suspected Lee: he wore a bullet proof vest. Thus he survives both a bullet and a blown-up car. Disheveled, Dosmo stumbles upon Hopper's residence and takes him and Susan hostage. Hungry, he cooks a pasta and sauce dinner for all of them. Dosmo plans on taking Hopper's car. Before that, he warns Hopper to stop insulting Susan and slaps him. Susan says to Dosmo, "Please don't hurt him. He doesn't mean anything by it. It's just his nature to be cruel." At this point no more bits of information are being provided as they will necessitate spoilers. Aiello is very good but the other actors also give their all in this one, and Hatcher achieves the best role of her career. The dialogue is snappy. There are a number of comedic overtones, mostly from Aiello's character, like the pit bull's reaction to Dosmo's toupee falling from his head. In short, the movie is entertaining with a simple but satisfying ending.

aeolus370 I've had this movie in my collection for a few years and just got around to watching it. It was given to me as a gift. I agree with other reviews that it was trying to clone Pulp Fiction, which is a much better movie. There were scenes that I really liked, although it was a little slow in connecting them. The cast was incredible. I just wish there was a little more to work with. Terintino's dialog writing skills would have made this a much better movie. Charlize Theron was incredible. I would have liked to see more of her. The version that I have is the old style snap case and it was widescreen, but not anamorphic.

buiger I disagree with Berardinelli's review, I didn't find this film very entertaining,. To me it was more like they wanted to make an 'art film' but didn't know how to go about doing it. The movie makers cannot decide whether the film is a comedy, a thriller or something else...A pity, the cast is phenomenal but nothing transpires, other than Charlize Theron showing how stunningly beautiful she was as a young girl... Not even a great performance by Danny Aiello saves the day. I found mostly the Direction and the script to be sorely lacking. This is basically nothing else but a bunch of (decent) cameos clumsily stitched together to resemble a movie. All things considered, in my opinion this is not worth wasting your time on.

Matt_Layden Here is an example of a film that tries too hard to be something it isn't. In this case, 2 Days In The Valley tries to be several different things at once. It tries to come off as this sleek crime film that has numerous characters whose lives interconnect over the course of 2 days. It's cast includes Jeff Daniels, Eric Stoltz, Charlize Therone, James Spader and Teri Hatcher, just to name a few.James Spader tries to emulate this cool talking bad-ass who gives his victims one minute to think about their life before they die. He literally takes out a timer and does this before shooting someone. It's a neat idea that doesn't come off as threatening or 'cool', which is what it looks like they were trying to do. I did like his performances though, just the little things that the character does is annoying.I didn't care for any of the characters, except for one. Now, this is where the film really drops the ball and is my main problem with it. I thought Jeff Daniels had the most interesting character out of the entire batch, but his story is never resolved or revisited. They literally drop him out of the picture half way through and this saddens me because I didn't give a crap about anyone else.I give the film props for the Teri Hatcher VS Charlize Theron cat fight. Even if it was just for the sake of having these two cuties get the guys all riled up. Their stories needed more attention I thought and others just didn't gel well with the rest of the script. A lot of the comedy was off and didn't flow with the rest of the film either.