If Robert Altman and Quentin Tarantino tried to copy each other badly, the
result would be "Two Days in the Valley". Lots of people's lives
intersecting with lots of guns provide a somewhat entertaining ride to nowhere
in particular. First, James Spader and Danny Aiello team up to blow away
Peter Horton, who is the ex- husband of Teri Hatcher. Then Paul Mazursky
contemplates suicide and meets Marsha Mason. Her brother is Greg Cruttwell,
an art dealer whose assistant is Glenne Headly. And Eric Stoltz is getting
a massage while his partner Jeff Daniels reads a letter. Sure, it seems
messy, but you figure and so do I that eventually some sense will come of
it. Some does, but not as much as is needed. There is plenty of chocolate
on the outside but no chewy on the inside of this bon-bon. There is no
center; all the performances are OK, but no one takes charge. Maybe it
is supposed to be Danny Aiello, since he is a pretty sympathetic sort, but
he is never given any access to center stage. Maybe it is supposed to be
James Spader, since he is the not very likable sort, but he is too busy
being all that bad.
I wouldn't recommend "Two Days in the Valley" unless you are a
film student who wants to contemplate the meaning of Mazursky using his
Emmy Award statue as a toilet paper holder. Or why Mazursky is playing
a character way too close to his real life roller-coaster ride in acting/directing/producing
from "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" in '69 to "Down
and Out in Beverly Hills" in '86. Or how movies like "Get Shorty"
and "The Player" and "Two Days" link violence and brutality
with the process of movie making. Sounds like a doctoral thesis. But in
this case it just doesn't make for a cohesive movie. What happened to Jeff
Daniel's character? Did they forget him in the third act? Or did his "happy
ending" end up on the cutting room floor? It sure felt like something
got left there. Rated R.
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