The sisterly writing team of Karen and Jill Sprecher create that deadly form of cinema, the play mistaken for a movie.
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2002)
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Reviews Counted:109
Fresh:90
Rotten:19
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Thirteen Conversations About One Thing is an intelligent and poignant look at lives intersecting.
Theatrical Release:17-06-2005
Synopsis: A man approaching middle age decides to change his life. A rising young attorney's plans are thrown into disarray as the result of a single act. A woman faces her husband's infidelity. An envious... A man approaching middle age decides to change his life. A rising young attorney's plans are thrown into disarray as the result of a single act. A woman faces her husband's infidelity. An envious businessman seeks revenge on a cheerful coworker and an optimistic young cleaning woman awaits a miracle. Just the ebb and flow of daily New York life: chaotic, isolated, diffuse. Or is it? How can we know what effect we have on a passing stranger? What if the smallest gesture can change the course of someone's life? Perhaps fate is in fact a product of the choices we make -- how we choose to accept seemingly random events, whether or not we opt to see the interconnectedness of things. Perhaps, too, there really is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if we can't see it yet. Thirteen Conversations About One Thing weaves five contemporary stories together into a single tale that examines the dramatic impact people have on one another. With a carefully constructed narrative that crisscrosses in time and doubles back on itself, the film offers an unusual glimpse into each character's past, present and future in ways that are both playful and poignant. The ideas it explores -- the meaning of true happiness, the notion of karma, the eternal power of hope -- strike with particular relevance in our increasingly frenetic, disjointed world. -- © 2002 Sony Pictures Classics [More]
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro, Clea DuVall, Amy Irving
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro, Clea DuVall, Amy Irving, Alan Arkin, Barbara Sukowa, Tia Texada, William Wise, Frankie Faison, Shawn Elliott
Director: Jill Sprecher
Director: Jill Sprecher
Screenwriter: Karen Sprecher, Jill Sprecher
Producer: Ben Atoori, Gina Resnick
Composer: Alex Wurman
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Reviews for Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
The Sprecher sisters like people enough to rejoice in their happiness and commiserate with their sorrows, and they should certainly be encouraged to keep on making movies.
“13 Conversations About One Thing” is an intelligent flick that examines many different ideas from happiness to guilt in an intriguing bit of storytelling.
At once intriguingly allusive and rigorously precise, very much like an anthology of well-crafted short stories.
Its hushed, contemplative quality is oddly affecting, as by the end, hope -- as the barstool philosopher might say -- springs eternal.
"13 Conversations" holds its goodwill close, but is relatively slow to come to the point.
A small film, but one whose modest grace provides greater satisfaction than most Hollywood blockbusters.
An intelligent, earnest, intimate film that drops the ball only when it pauses for blunt exposition to make sure you're getting its metaphysical point.
If filmmakers tell stories as a way of imposing logic where none exists in the natural flow of life, then this film locates the source of that flow in what we say to one another.
Even if the working parts in Conversations aren't all up to snuff, the movie does succeed in leaving you attentive and prepared for any stirring in the outside world that will affect your day.
13 Conversations demands the utmost concentration, for to look away from the screen for even a brief moment is to risk losing a plot line or a crucial bit of information, but its cumulative, transporting impact makes it worth the effort.
The performances are solid throughout, but Arkin is tops as a simmering pencil-pusher incensed by his employees' good fortune.
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