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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
13 Conversations About One Thing
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 out of 4
Review by Susan Granger
2 stars out of 4
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Four vignettes about New Yorkers whose lives intersect form the crux
of this gloomy, slow-paced philosophical contemplation. The strange story begins
with a Columbia physics professor (John Turturro) who been mugged and is
cheating on his wife (Amy Irving) with a colleague (Barbara Sukowa). Meanwhile,
at a neighborhood bar, an embittered insurance company manager (Alan Arkin), who
loathes the optimism of one of his claims adjusters (William Wise), downs a
drink while a self-righteous assistant district attorney (Matthew McConaughey)
celebrates a verdict with colleagues. Abrasive words are exchanged. Then,
driving home, the cocky lawyer hits a pedestrian (Clea DuVall), flees in panic
and suffers pangs of guilt. The injured woman is a naive house-cleaner who was
chasing a wind-blown shirt down the street. Each of the 13 fragments, or
conversations, begins with a cliché fortune-cookie saying, like "Fortune smiles
at some and laughs at others," "Ignorance is bliss" and "Wisdom comes suddenly."
Writer/director Jill Sprecher ("Clockwatchers") and co-writer Karen Sprecher
indulge in facile pop psychology, exploring anger, despair, penance and
redemption, in an existential search for the meaning of happiness. They favor
stylized symbolism: a forehead wound on the man with a guilty conscience, a
leaky pen in the shirt pocket above the heart of an angry man, a black eye on
someone who can't see clearly. While the naturalistic ensemble acting is
convincing, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Thirteen Conversations About
One Thing" is, nevertheless, a stilted, depressing 5, mystically indicating that
nothing is random or inconsequential when viewed in a larger context.
Copyright © 2002 Susan Granger
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