2 Days in the Valley Movie Review

2 Days in the Valley (1996)

Rent 2 Days in the Valley on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: John Herzfeld
Directed by: John Herzfeld
Starring: Teri Hatcher, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Charlize Theron, James Spader, Eric Stoltz, Keith Carradine, Michael Jai White
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
Forty-eight hours of intersecting lives and crimes in Los Angeles.

Verdict
It's really just a revenge tale, but the intriguing aspect is that we get some amount of backstory for every character encountered, making this more drama and less action. Unfortunately only half of the characters get a resolution. The best aspect of this movie is how many actors became successful after, not because of, this movie.
It depends.

Review
This presents a lot of characters with seemingly no connection. All of them are down on their luck. There's a hitman that's trying to jump start his career, a broke movie director, an Olympian with a jerk boyfriend, and others.

As the movie proceeds these characters start to interact, but I was wondering where this would go and would the end of the movie have them all meet. Would the end be some desperate attempt to connect these people?

Teri Hatcher and Charlize Theron.

There's a lot of attention to the editing, lining up shots and transitions that flow really well. As the editing hints, everything is connected or soon will be.

At it's core this is a movie about an aging hitman that's trying to get back into the game. The twist is that we get character information on nearly everyone in the movie. The hitman doesn't just break into an unnamed character's house, we know a little about this person. We don't feel all that bad that the hitman broke in because the home owner is a jerk.

The movie twists that plot line into the job the hitman was on in the beginning. That's how everyone meets at the end. It's not a bad movie, but it's not great. A typical straight arrow plot line would have been boring. Providing background for all the characters makes this more of a drama than an action movie and adds a fresh take, but I can't help but wish we got better conclusions for some of the characters. The other fun aspect is how many of these actors are or would become well known.