Prepared for the worst, I started to watch the movie. It began just as I expected it might. A murder begins a very twisted plot structure featuring a plethora of characters with no seeming connection to each other. This is good brain stimulation, since you try to get everyone connected but the plot is racing by so quickly you have to concentrate on each new fact in case you get left behind.

Suddenly, and with absolutely no warning, it dawned on me that I was enjoying Two Days in the Valley. Indeed, I was enjoying this movie a great deal. I think the scene that really made me begin to drool with anticipation for the climax was the moment when the ten completely unrelated characters and incidents first begin to intertwine. Its a subtle and touching scene with Marsha Mason in the cemetery and as she drives off down the road in her beaten up old vehicle its almost like she is driving the audience to a complicated resolution.

Once the film had won me over, it seemed to go from good to even better. I actually burst out laughing in a few places and held my hands wincingly in front of my face at other times. Not that the movie is without flaws, mind you. I personally could have done without the cat fight which probably would appeal to those amongst us who enjoy watching women wrestling. The whole scene sniffed of an insurance clause to me. Had the audience been totally hating the film, |then maybe the sight of two slim, trim, ultra-fit women in lycra might sway at least half the audience to find some good in the movie. Alternatively, knowing Terry Hatcher's big screen reputation, maybe she insisted on a physical exploitation clause in her contract.

There are also loose ends that are not tied off, but who knows, maybe director and writer John Herzfield wanted to leave the way clear for a sequel. My only other criticism with the movie was that the camera angles seemed to be a little too desperate in their attempt to be innovative. Herzfield should be loudly acclaimed for this, his debut film, but maybe next time he won't feel the need to follow Tarantino quite so thoroughly.

Also like Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Two Days is the Valley is based around violence and unusual people. Indeed, such films seem to be a growing trend in Hollywood. It began with The Player and Pulp Fiction then Get Shorty and of course the hidden treasure of The Usual Suspects. Each film indicates there is a distinctive change in the look and feel of recent movies. Film scholars may look back on this innovative and interesting era in the cinema and give it a name. Maybe it will be named "Puzzle Film" or "Film Jigsaw" since the different threads and ideas weave together like a puzzle. Like a jigsaw, too, parts of the film begin to merge long before all the pieces fall into place, thus making the picture crystal clear.

And like a jigsaw puzzle, Two Days in the Valley is a pleasure from beginning to end. The anticipation as the pieces are laid on the table is as good as is the satisfaction at the conclusion on the movie when the picture finally comes into focus.