2 Days in the Valley
Director/Writer: | John Herzfeld |
Director of Photography: | Oliver Wood |
Editors: | Jim Miller and Wayne Wahrman |
Music: | Anthony Marinelli |
Production Designer: | Catherine Hardwicke |
Producers: | Jeff Wald and Herb Nanas |
Rysher Entertainment/MGM Credit Lyonnais; R; 105 minutes | |
Release: | 9/96 |
Cast: | Danny Aiello, Greg Cruttwell, James Spader, Teri Hatcher, Charlize Theron, Jeff Daniels, Eric Stoltz, Glenne Headly, Paul Mazursky, Louise Fletcher, Marsha Mason, Keith Carradine, Peter Horton and Austin Pendleton |
With its four intersecting stories, 2 Days in the Valley falls somewhere between Short Cuts and Pulp Fiction, though it lacks the cutting-edge hipness of both. But the quirky film works as a comic film noir and offers up endearing characters. Ultra-cool Lee Woods (Spader) hires hitman Dosmo Pizzo (Aiello) to kill Roy Fox (Horton) in a complicated insurance scam. At the time of the murder, two vice cops (Daniels and Stoltz), who want to move to homicide, bungle a massage-parlor bust. Obnoxious, twitty art dealer Alan Hopper (Cruttwell) gets his comeuppance when he suffers a kidney stone attack in the middle of a street. Pizzo ends up holding Hopper and his secretary (Headly) hostage and cooks them a sumptuous pasta dish. The last vignette features a down-and-out writer and director (Mazursky), who puts his suicide on hold until he can find someone to care for his dog. While contemplating his dog's future, he meets a nurse (Fletcher), who volunteers her brother, Alan Hopper, to adopt the beloved dog. Aiello loads the film with laughs and emerges as the scene stealer.