2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY
A Film Review by Brian Takeshita
Rating: ** out of ****
2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY starts out like most movies, and introduces you to a couple of main characters. Then it introduces you to a couple more main characters. But then it introduces you to a couple more main characters. Then a couple more. Then....well, you get the picture. This film has a large playbill with no less than 11 significant roles; often a recipe for disaster. Having too many characters means less time spent with each, which means the audience does not get to know them well, which means the audience doesn't care about what happens to them. There goes one of the first rules of any kind of fiction: People have to care about your characters. Many movies have a hard time achieving this with only a few main characters. The writers of 2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY should not have been so ambitious.
See if you can follow me. Lee and Dosmo are professional hit men who kill Becky's husband Roy. The murder is preceded by framing Roy in an affair with Lee's fiancee, Helga. Meanwhile, Teddy, a washed-up director, is getting ready to end his dead-end life until he meets Audrey. Enter Allan, who is an obnoxious boss who constantly mistreats his assistant Susan. Back to Lee and Dosmo. Lee tries to frame Dosmo for the murder of Roy, but Roy gets away and stumbles upon Allan and Susan. Across town, Wes and Alvin are vice cops who are going to raid a "massage" parlor, but en route find Becky, covered with blood from the murder of Roy. We later find out that Becky is part of the plot to kill Roy, although she didn't know about the affair with Helga. Hard to follow? You've just experienced the second pitfall of the large cast: Too many subplots in order to involve all of the characters in the main plot.
Since the characters come from such disparate backgrounds, you know that it's inevitable they're going meet each other in one way or another. The problem with this movie is, you wait a long time for this to happen. It isn't until about 45 minutes into the movie that the first meet cute occurs, and even then some of the characters don't join the merry band until the very end of the film. In order to keep track of everyone, you have to keep cutting back to those characters who haven't yet met, and this slows the film down considerably.
The ensemble cast includes Danny Aiello, Greg Cruttwell, Jeff Daniels, Teri Hatcher, Glenne Headly, Peter Horton, Marsha Mason, Paul Mazursky, James Spader, Eric Stoltz and Charlize Theron. Only the character played by Daniels is anywhere near complete. Daniels plays Alvin, the hardened vice cop who's been assigned a new partner (Eric Stoltz) who only transferred into vice as a way to get promoted into homicide. Alvin has been at the job a long time and truly believes in what he's doing: He's protecting his neighborhood. However, the years of fighting society's ills has gotten to him, and he's being driven over the edge. He's also a divorced father, and now lives in an empty house. We really feel for him because we know he's doing the best he can. He's also a guy you might know in real life. Director John Herzfeld does a nice job acquainting the viewer with Alvin and why he is the way he is. Unfortunately, we don't see him anymore after the first half of the film.
There's another character worth mentioning, but this one's only halfway complete. Paul Mazursky plays Teddy, the washed-up director. His plight is very moving in the first half of the film, as we see him driven to the brink of suicide. The scenes where he's got a gun pointed to his own head (there are two such scenes) are quite poignant, and adding his little dog watching him makes those moments near tear-jerkers. However, all that changes when he meets Audrey (Marsha Mason). His attitude changes, but inconsistently. At some points, you feel he has a new zest for life. At others, he's the guy who's got nothing left to live for and will take the ultimate risk. The movie definitely loses something tangible in the second hour by forgetting about Alvin and by not rounding out Teddy's life.
While not a great film, 2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY does have its moments. My favorite line was when Dosmo (Danny Aiello) chastises Allan (Greg Cruttwell) for being so mean to his assistant. Allan responds with, "I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I grew up in a trailer park....I may be an ass, but I've worked hard to become one!" Particularly moving was a scene of Alvin making out a birthday card to his daughter from her "First Daddy", then reading a letter notifying him of his suspension from the force. There's a slow pull back through his house's picture window which had been broken earlier that day by a golf ball from the course across the street. Framed in that broken window, Alvin is the picture of a man who has had it with the world. Unfortunately, that near perfect scene is ruined by a shaky camera.
One thing this movie does have is one hell of a cat fight. Becky (Teri Hatcher) and Helga (Charlize Theron) really go at it, perhaps more enthusiastically than in any other movie I've ever seen. Not the usual pounding, pushing and scratching motions, but fists flying left and right. Being so original, it was too bad it had to end in the unseen gunshot cliche. You know how it goes: They struggle with the gun, and you know it's going to go off at any minute, but then the camera cuts away to the outside of the room and >bang
I'm not sure what Herzfeld was going for with the camera work. It seemed as if the style changed with each scene. In one scene, extreme close-ups would be used. In another scene, point of view shots. In the dialog exchange between Becky and Helga just before they come to fisticuffs, the camera shifts between them with that fast pan with the blur in between. The kind that has a >whoosh< sound effect. I found this inconsistency distracting.
Finally, there's the music. There are a lot of good tunes in this film that will get you tapping your feet. The problem is, almost none of them fit the location. Like any other place in the world, the San Fernando Valley has a certain style, so to hear blues played over a shot of a car pulling up in front a suburban home just doesn't click. There are enough references to the environs that it's obvious Herzfeld wants you to remember the setting throughout the film, so the music should have been chosen to reflect this. My advice would be to go out and look for the soundtrack. You'll be able to listen to it without getting thrown off by watching the movie.
Review posted October 17, 1997
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