THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609300211
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 67 lines
WATCHING ``2 Days in the Valley'' is like going shopping at a flea market. You'll find a little of everything and occasionally a real bargain.
There are little gems in this movie - occasional sparks of witty, campy and unpredictable dialogue. On the other hand, it is very much a copy of earlier movies - a little like ``Pulp Fiction'' meets ``Nashville.'' The dirty-talking criminals of Quentin Tarantino movies meet the varied and quirky characters of Robert Altman movies.
Sparked by an all-star, uniformly good cast, it features an ensemble of outrageous, weird, over-the-top and never-ordinary people. Directed and written by John Herzfeld, it is blessed with some fine acting, and some particularly eccentric behavior.
The ``valley'' of the title is Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, a place, the movie suggests, where people are on edge. That's putting it mildly.
James Spader (looking as insufferably snooty and handsomely smug as ever) plays a psychotic hit man who has been hired to kill Teri Hatcher's husband, played by Peter Horton. His partner is an aging and over-the-hill criminal played delightfully by Danny Aiello. The plan is that Aiello will also be knocked off, but he escapes, taking refuge in the mansion of a snobbish artist (Britisher Greg Cruttwell).
Aiello, reluctantly holds the artist and his shy, wallflower secretary (Glenne Headly) hostage while a dozen, seemingly uninvolved, characters spin on the outskirts of the movie.
All the people eventually meet and become involved with each other.
Jeff Daniels is a gung-ho vice cop who wants to right the world by getting rid of all the filth and criminals. We meet him as he and his partner, Eric Stoltz, are debating the merits of busting a massage parlor.
Added to the mix is four-time Oscar nominee Marsha Mason, as a nurse who wanders into the artist's house with a suicidal director, played hilariously by Paul Mazursky.
Aiello, even while waving a gun at his captives, takes time out to cook them an Italian dinner. In an unlikely matching, he teaches Headly's character to value herself, and him.
The movie's biggest scene is an all-out cat fight that rivals anything seen on the most hair-pulling days of ``Dynasty.'' Hatcher, playing an Olympic skier who has never won a medal, is trying to make the switch to the big screen from the small, where she is a star in ``Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman.'' Her opponent is a blond knockout named Charlize Theron, who undoubtedly will emerge as a new star. Theron, playing a gun moll named Helga, is so striking that she manages to become the stand-out presence among the veteran cast. Their fight scene is a no-holds-barred outing.
You should be warned that there is colorful language here, and most of these characters are totally amoral. Exaggeration, though, is the stuff of which humor is made, and ``2 Days in the Valley'' is a quirky entertainment that is definitely out of the ordinary.
It's a little like attending a three-ring circus in which all the performers work without nets. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``2 Days in the Valley''
Cast: Teri Hatcher, Marsha Mason, James Spader, Eric Stoltz,
Charlize Theron, Danny Aiello, Jeff Daniels, Glenne Headly, Paul
Mazursky, Greg Cruttwell, Peter Horton, Keith Carradine, Louise
Fletcher, Austin Pendleton
Director and Writer: John Herzfeld
MPAA rating: R (language and violence)
Mal's rating: Three stars by CNB