2 Days in the Valley – Review

Dosmo (Aiello) hasn’t worked for a while, but he always knew he’d be back. He sits in a car on Mullholland overlooking Los Angeles, with Lee Woods (Spader), monitoring a house via audio bugs and with binoculars.

They are listening in on Becky Foxx (Hatcher) and her ex, Roy (Horton), who weaseled himself into her house that evening to say that leaving her was a mistake. Becky is not loving it, and just wants to sleep. As the bickering pair finally settles, Dosmo and Lee move in…

Across L.A., washed up actor Teddy (Mazursky) still does not have the rent, and is facing eviction after being four months past due. His agent doesn’t return his calls, and he is at the end of his rope, tossing his old Emmy into the garbage. The only friends he has left are his lil dog Bogey, and his tiny handgun.

Further into the valley, dickhead whiny shit Allan Hopper (Cruttwell) gets a flat tire on the way to his snooty event, and then collapses in the middle of the street with kidney stone pain. He begs a man (Jai White) across the street (who happens to be stealing a convertible Mustang) to help him.

As Vice agents Wes Taylor (Stoltz) and Alvin Strayer (Daniels) move to raid a Japanese massage parlor on suspicion of prostitution, Strayer struggles with controlling his anger. There will be NO MASSAGE PARLORS IN THE VALLEY. Not on his watch.

As all of these characters, and more, proceed through their lives over a 48-hour period, what kind of insanity will go down? Only time will tell.

2 Days in the Valley is a pretty good crime tale with multiple interwoven stories and characters colliding. The setup for the unwinding story is solid all around and leads to all sorts of shenanigans between the multiple parties. The winding tale is always full of uncertainty and surprise, and is well acted by a well-rounded cast. Double and triple-crosses have nothing on 2 Days in the Valley, which still plays pretty well today.