Comedy Vies With Violence in ‘Valley’

Hodgepodge may not be the word writer-director John Herzfeld would use to describe his quirky black comedy “2 Days in the Valley,” but hodgepodge it is. And that’s not all bad.

There are too many characters, but some are a lot of fun. The tone shifts, from graphic murder to wig-flipping farce, are too extreme, but much of it works. Its style seems to imitate both Robert Altman and Quentin Tarantino yet has an energy all its own. And while it adds up to neither a satisfying thriller nor an effective satire of life in the San Fernando Valley, it’s never boring. Oh, well, maybe when Eric Stoltz is around.

The narrative thread tying Herzfeld’s ensemble of characters together is a contract killing that goes awry and sets in motion parallel stories about an icy assassin’s search for a $30,000 stash, and his betrayed partner’s hostage-holding in an effete art dealer’s hillside home.

James Spader is the sociopathic hit man and is way too good at playing evil for us to enjoy anything about his character. But as his partner Dosmo Pizzo, a failed mob lowlife trying to make a comeback, Danny Aiello is terrific. Distracted by canine phobia and a wandering toupee, Dosmo tries to maintain control with an expanding cast of hostages that includes the art dealer’s abused assistant (Glenne Headly), his sister (Marsha Mason), and a suicidal, has-been movie director (Paul Mazursky) who shows up looking for a home for his dog.

Meanwhile, Spader’s Lee Woods is busy betraying one girlfriend (Teri Hatcher) for another (Charlize Theron), starting the spandex cat fight of the year, while methodically murdering everyone who gets in his way. Filling out the ensemble, unnecessarily, are the two vice cops (Stoltz and Jeff Daniels) who happen onto the original murder scene. Stoltz sticks around, without adding a thing, while Daniels undergoes a job-related, psychological meltdown that looks like an audition for the lead in “The Mark Fuhrman Story.” The character certainly has nothing to do with “2 Days in the Valley.”

What the movie lacks in story discipline, it makes up in its comic sketches. The scenes between Dosmo and the art dealer (Greg Cruttwell), and the unlikely romance blossoming between Dosmo and Headly’s Susan Parish, have a tone Herzfeld would have been wise to adopt for the whole movie.

Tarantino’s gift, at least with “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction,” is his ability to create comedy within horrific violence. In “2 Days,” the comedy and violence travel along different paths altogether, and when they finally do merge, as is often the case on the highways in the Valley, it isn’t pretty.

* MPAA rating: R, for violence, sexuality and language. Times guidelines: The mixture of farce and bloody violence sends younger viewers a confusing message.

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‘2 Days in the Valley’

Danny Aiello: Dosmo Pizzo

James Spader: Lee Woods

Glenne Headly: Susan Parish

Teri Hatcher: Becky Foxx

Charlize Theron: Helga Svelgen

Eric Stoltz: Wes Taylor

Paul Mazursky: Teddy Peppers

A Redemption production, released by MGM/UA. Writer-director John Herzfeld. Producers Jeff Wald, Herb Nanas. Editors Jim Miller, Wayne Wahrman. Cinematography Oliver Wood. Production design Catherine Hardwicke. Music Anthony Marinelli. Costumes Betsy Heimann. Art director Kevin Constant. Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.