13 Conversations About One Thing

Starring:Matthew McConaughey, David Connolly (II), Joseph Siravo, A.D. Miles, Sig Libowitz, James Yaegashi, Dion Graham, Fernando LÃ³pez, Brian Smiar, Paul Austin, Allie Woods Jr., John Turturro, Amy Irving, Barbara Sukowa, Rob McElhenney, Avery Glymph, Elizabeth Reaser, Deirdre Lovejoy, Barbara Andres, William Severs
Director: Jill Sprecher
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

A smartly written and wonderfully acted movie about happiness and fate. 13 Conversations About One Thing takes four characters (a lawyer who hits a housecleaner with his car, then flees the scene; the housecleaner herself; a science professor who leaves his wife; and an insurance claims adjuster who's deeply envious of a coworker who seems irrepressibly happy) and blends their stories into a delicate but potent mix. The characters cross paths at various points, but more often the events reverberate off each other in funny, surprising, or sorrowful ways. For all its cleverness, 13 Conversations never loses sight of the characters' humanity. The remarkable performances (from Matthew McConaughey, Clea DuVall, Amy Irving, John Turturro, and especially Alan Arkin) are riveting. On top of that, this movie, for all its quiet and talkative nature, is visually stunning, each shot a carefully composed portrait of a state of mind. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Not satisfying.......2007-03-29

I just don't quite "get" this film, nor do I see where all the positive reviews came from. The film is comprised of vignettes focused on four basic groups of characters: lawyers, office workers, cleaning ladies, and college professor. But almost nothing exciting or remarkable happens in this film, nothing that really made me wonder what would happen next or how this film would turn out. We basically start the movie with John Turturro's story of being a late to home husband with a bruise on his eye that came from some encounter a few days before then we're brisked off to McConaughey's piece about a positive man who runs into some bad luck following a sermon he gives to a man at the bar about him not ever being unhappy. The rest of the stories interweave into each other before it's all done, which is an interesting concept, but it's been done much better in other films.

Watch it!.......2007-03-17

I loved this movie!!, The acting was brilliant. Alan Arkin and Clea Duvall fit perfectly into the role they played. The movie has kept me thinking about it, day after day, realizing different ways all the characters are alike. If you enjoy seeing tons of insight into other peoples lives you will appreciate this movie.

True Art.......2007-02-24

This review is very late in coming, but I wanted to see other movies "with interweaving" plot lines like "Babel" which I recently purchased also. I've had "13 Conversations" for a long time, and watched it a couple of times since. This movie is one that you will never tire of watching because its subject, the pursuit and meaning of happiness, is timeless like a good 1940s Rossellini movie. The acting is smart, crackling and too real. The writing by Jennifer Sprecher is outstanding. Alan Arkin comes across as the curmudgeonly one always on the outside looking in, but who in the end is just broken after giving up on life and hope. The others, from his vantage point are fools for looking and hoping for happiness, but what is life without it? Nothing. This movie will make you think and think and think. And think some more. Watch it with someone that you love and pop a bottle of wine after or during to perhaps facilitate discussion. We will look back at this movie in 50 years to get a view of life in these times and what people did to try to find ultimate happiness. It is as perfect a movie as movies can be, and will, for me, define the art of filmmaking. Bravo.

bad luck or good providence?.......2007-01-24

Set in New York city, this film narrates the every day aspirations and heart aches of four people: a young, brash prosecutor, an aging middle manager at an insurance company, a physics professor at Columbia, and a young cleaning girl. Director Jill Sprecher walks a thin line and teases out the tension between two world views. On the one hand, these characters feel the apparent futility and despair that despite what choices they make, or wish they could make, they really have no control over their lives, and so life feels very random and fickle. Still, as the film has it, the lives of these four characters do in fact intersect, such that a bigger picture of purpose is intimated. Clearly, all the characters in this film long to embrace the notion that there is a larger, benign Purpose directing what appear to be little more than accidental events. In a final scene, even the mere gesture of waving to someone as the subway train pulls away suggests that there is meaning in all we do. Christians will enjoy this film as an excellent commentary on the notion of divine Providence in which a loving God superintends our lives. He is no magician or puppeteer, and all our human choices matter, but we are never beyond the pale of His care or the presence of mystery in all we experience.

Lucky 13.......2007-01-23

Arkin gives a outstanding performance with the rest of the cast not far behind. Story is compelling both moving heart and funny bone.

Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (13 Conversations) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]

Average customer rating:

Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (13 Conversations) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]
Director: Jill Sprecher
Manufacturer: Siren Visual
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), 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 businessman seeks revenge on a cheerful coworker. And an optimistic young cleaning woman awaits a miracle. These ordinary people all find themselves asking the fundamental question philosophers have pondered throughout history: What is happiness, and how does one achieve it? SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu,

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