2 Days in the Valley is being advertised as another version of Pulp Fiction, but in fact it bears more resemblance to Robert Altman's Nashville. The various stories don't twine together--as they do in Pulp Fiction with some grace--as much hang around next to each other, then collide in contrived and uncomfortable ways. The avalanche of happenstance is the low point of 2 Days in the Valley: All the characters conveniently wind up in each other's laps, basically, again and again. But, if you can forgive writer/director John Herzfeld this fault, or at least overlook it for a while, most of the subplots turn out to be interesting, offbeat, and allow the talented cast to show off their abilities.

The central storyline involves two hit men: One ruthless and psychotic (played for subtle humor by James Spader), the other kindhearted and washed up (Danny Aiello). Together they commit a crime which sets the events converging. All sorts of innocent (and not so innocent) bystanders are pulled into the fray, including a stuck-up art dealer (Greg Cruttwell), his cringing assistant (Glenne Headly), an incompetent cop (Eric Stolz) and a suicidal, washed-up TV director (Paul Mazursky, in real life a director, perhaps a bit washed up). John Herzfeld, who himself has previously directed only made-for-TV movies (The Preppie Murders, among others), has a deft hand with the actors; dozens of big names are in this film. The profusion of subplots demands things happen fast, and the competent cast manages to bring the characters to life despite the time restraints.

Still, there's a problem with having such a large and well-known cast. When a famous actor appears for only a few seconds, they never actually seem to inhabit their role. Everyone in the audience is thinking "Oh, that's Louise Fletcher," or, "Hey, there's Keith Carradine," and by the time you stop thinking that, they've disappeared, never to return. Robert Altman understood this in a way Herzfeld doesn't; when he used famous actors in cameo roles, they usually played themselves. Things rise to a whole different level when the characters in the movie itself begin blurting out, "Hey, that's Elliot Gould."

Herzfeld clearly has taken Nashville, or Altman's work in general, as a template for 2 Days in the Valley, even to the point of casting Keith Carradine, a favorite of Altman's, in a small role. Herzfeld pales though, in comparison. (Even Altman pales in comparison to his own Nashville). Herzfeld can only envy Altman's brilliant use of music--2 Days in the Valley is occasionally interrupted by cheesy, MTV-style "musical interludes"--and he can only dream about conveying Nashville's witty and layered sense of place. With the exception of one scene, where Jeff Daniels' picture window gets shattered by a golf ball, 2 Days in the Valley could have taken place almost anywhere. Herzfeld mostly misses the opportunity to portray bright, splashy violence against a backdrop of cheerful, Brady Bunch-style front lawns. He never really grabs the chance to juxtapose the valley of death and the San Fernando one.

Every now and then, though, Herzfeld does show he's learned a lesson or two from Altman. Occasionally an event slips by that doesn't loop back into the main plot, or coincide with some other action, or even further the plot at all: A rich art dealer falls from his sports car, dizzy with pain, and stumbles into traffic. Everyone at the night club across the street ignores his calls for help except for a thief, who picks him up and throws him in the back of the car he's in the process of stealing. The thief never reappears; Herzfeld knows enough to leave this perfect little vignette of urban morality alone. It's a little gem of a loose end in a plot that's knotted just a little too tightly.