2 days in the valley is more or less a pulp fiction knock off . it basically involves how a bunch of quirky characters in the los angeles area end up having their lives become intertwined in some very unusual ways . i'm not going into much greater detail than that , since it would take forever to explain , and quite frankly , i'm not willing to spend any more time on it than the 2 hours that i've already wasted . while it tries very hard to be pulp fiction , 2 days in the valley falls way short . this is quite a condemnation considering the cast includes danny aiello , james spader and jeff daniels . while the story isn't much , and the dialogue and characters rate only marginally better , 2 days in the valley does have a couple of bright spots . james spader's character , while not much better than the rest , is at least fun to watch in a sick sort of way . and we do get to see a nice cat fight between uber babes teri hatcher and charlize theron ( in her first role ) . you know a movie isn't that good when the highlight is a brawl between two women . even if they are both gorgeous . i will give the writers some credit for the fairly clever ways in which they managed to intersect the lives of this group of characters that would have otherwise never interacted . but marveling at that ingenuity is a far cry from actually enjoying the result . while some of the characters and their respective stories are fairly interesting , they inevitably are brought down as they intersect with the other half of the characters that i really cared absolutely nothing about . if i were to put a number on it , only about half of the story and half the characters in this movie were particularly interesting or otherwise enjoyable to watch . this is the sort of movie that only a huge fan of one or more of the cast members should rent , and even then prepare for disappointment . not even charlize theron being naked would get me to sit through this movie again . or at least not all of it anyway .
