ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies.

IS LIFE just a series of random, meaningless moments? Do we all live at the mercy of fate? Can one modest action have untold consequences for a total stranger?

Those are the questions that inform ‘13 Conversations About One Thing’, a thoughtful ensemble drama with an all-star cast. Inspired by an incident in the life of director Jill Sprecher and co-written with her sister Karen, the film traces the unexpected connections between five lives that unfold in the bustle and bleakness of New York.

Matthew McConaughey is a rising attorney who makes the painful discovery that pride comes before a fall. John Turturro’s discontented professor faces a mid-life crisis. His wife Amy Irving discovers his infidelity. Cleaning woman Clea Duvall struggles to maintain her faith in humanity. Businessman Alan Arkin is consumed by a dislike of a permanently cheerful, good-hearted colleague.
  
Inevitably, the film is a little episodic and elliptical as the differing lives step in and out of focus. The moralising is frequently heavy-handed but the film improves as the connections grow clearer.

The best sequence boasts an impressive performance from veteran actor Alan Arkin as a Willy Loman-like figure embittered by the misfortunes in his life and the cut throat corporate world. There is an originality in the writing and a crispness in the playing in this story that isn’t always present in a film that isn’t quite as profound as it sometimes seems to think.
  
13 CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ONE THING
General release, selected cinemas
Directors: Jill Sprecher
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro, Amy Irving, Alan Arkin
Screenwriter: Karen Sprecher, Jill Sprecher
Certificate: 15
Running time: 104 mins
Country: USA
Year: 2001
 

© Allan Hunter, 2005