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Has Quentin Tarantino been good or bad for Hollywood? It depends on how you look at it. Sure, he broke boundaries with Pulp Fiction, but his success spawned a horde of unimaginative wannabes. John Herzfeld, the writer and director of the uninspired 2 Days in the Valley, is a good example.
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This 1996 movie revolves around a period of – you guessed it – two days, and the action takes place in California’s San Fernando Valley. Eric Stolz and Jeff Daniels portray two vice cops, Danny Aiello plays an aging mobster, and James Spader attempts to come across as the “arch-villain.”
The casting is a perfect example of the Tarantino effect gone sour. Tarantino’s penchant for attempting to revive the careers of “stars” from another era should not translate into throwing together a patchwork of b-level celebrities in the hopes that together they will spark some magic on screen. Spader, for instance, seemed much more at home as an impotent voyeur in Stephen Soderbergh’s low-budget Sex, Lies and Videotape than as a homicidal maniac. As for Aiello, he would be better off sticking to the stock racist white guy in Spike Lee films. Jeff Daniels probably peaked playing opposite Jim Carrey in Dumb & Dumber, and he should not try to play a badass L.A. cop – ever.
As for the plot, little new ground is broken. The characters all start out in unrelated situations and in the end all come together. Once again, though, what worked for Pulp Fiction fails here. In fact, if 2 Days in the Valley serves any purpose, it is as a public service to show to aspiring young directors in the hopes that such a screening will prevent subjecting anyone else to similar tripe.
If 2 Days in the Valley is ineffective in this regard, then a slew of other films with similarly “ironic” sensibilities could do the trick. The shelves of too many video stores are littered with titles like Killing Zoe and Search and Destroy.
This brings us to a larger point about the Hollywood system, and that is that the Tarantino effect is hardly unique. Originality all too quickly flies out the window as studios rush to make a quick buck off the latest trend. Actors, in turn, cynically respond with attempts to use low-budget “indie” flicks to rejuvenate their stalled careers. The trouble is, for every Monster’s Ball there’s at least one Passion of Mind – and that’s not good for anybody.
What these filmmakers don’t realize is that what launches an otherwise small-scale film into the big time is the level of originality and quality of execution. This is certainly the case for those infected with the Tarantino curse. If you have too much irony, then it just isn’t ironic anymore. You can still watch a decades-old Scorsese film and have it be as relevant as it was at the time of its release.
It remains to be seen whether Tarantino’s films will stand the test of time in a similar manner. Indeed, the Kill Bill films are the only bright spot in Tarantino’s growing self-caricature. While the flashes of brilliance with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction cannot be denied, this is a director who still has more to prove if he aspires to greatness.
With movies such as 2 Days in the Valley, the future is far bleaker. It is merely another iteration of the old Hollywood cycle of jumping on the bandwagon and riding it until it breaks down. Watch it if you must, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.
