Thirteen Conversations About One Thing

Infobox Film
name = Thirteen Conversations About One Thing


caption = Promotional poster
imdb_id = 0268690
producer = Beni Tadd Atoori
Gina Resnick
director = Jill Sprecher
cinematography = Dick Pope
writer = Karen Sprecher
Jill Sprecher
starring = Matthew McConaughey
Alan Arkin
John Turturro
Clea DuVall
Amy Irving
editing = Stephen Mirrione
music = Alex Wurman
distributor = Sony Pictures Classics
released = May 24, 2001
runtime = 104 minutes
country = United States
language = English

"Thirteen Conversations About One Thing" is a 2001 American drama film directed by Jill Sprecher. The screenplay by Sprecher and her sister Karen focuses on five seemingly disparate individuals in search of happiness whose paths intersect in ways that unexpectedly impact their lives.

Plot

Structurally, the film is divided into thirteen vignettes, each prefaced by an aphorism. Set in New York City, the story revolves around ambitious district attorney Troy, who is stricken with guilt following a hit and run accident in which he injures Beatrice, an idealistic cleaning woman who, forced to reassess her attitudes during her recuperation, finds herself thinking more like her cynical co-worker Dorrie. Midlevel insurance claims manager Gene, unable to cope with his son's downward spiral into drug addiction, is rankled by an unrelentingly cheerful staff member and suffers pangs of regret after firing him without just cause. College physics professor Walker, trying to cope with a midlife crisis, becomes romantically involved with a colleague, an infidelity his wife Patricia is forced to face when his wallet, stolen in a mugging, is mailed to their home and she discovers incriminating evidence inside it.

Production

The Sprecher sisters scripted "Thirteen Conversations" over the course of eight weeks. Although it was completed prior to "Clockwatchers", which was released in 1997, a lack of funding prevented it from reaching the screen until several years later [ [http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/notes/jsprecherinterview.htm Jill Sprecher interview at FilmFreakCentral.net] ] . The plot was inspired in part by events in Jill Sprecher's life, including two muggings and a subway assault [ [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A96019 "Austin Chronicle", July 5, 2002] ] . The character of Beatrice is based on Sprecher's personal experience cleaning apartments after moving to Manhattan following college graduation [ [http://www.reel.com/reel.asp?node=features/interviews/sprecher/ Reel.com] ] .

The film premiered at the 2001 Venice Film Festival and was shown at the Toronto Film Festival, the MIFED Film Market in Italy, the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and the Wisconsin Film Festival before going into limited release in the US. It opened on nine screens, earning $89,499 and ranking #34 on its opening weekend. It eventually grossed $3,288,164 in the US and $418,488 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $3,706,652 [ [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=13conversationsaboutonething.htm BoxOfficeMojo.com] ] .

Principal cast

*Matthew McConaughey ..... Troy
*John Turturro ..... Walker
*Clea DuVall ..... Beatrice
*Alan Arkin ..... Gene
*Amy Irving ..... Patricia
*Tia Texada ..... Dorrie

Critical reception

A.O. Scott of the "New York Times" called the film "both straightforward and enigmatic" and said watching it "is a bit like listening to a Schubert piano concerto: you perceive, at the far boundary of consciousness, echoes and foreshadowings, and you encounter, always by surprise and always in retrospect, at exactly the right moment passages of intense and ravishing emotion." He added, "The quiet naturalism of the acting balances the artifice of the script and the almost finicky precision of Ms. Sprecher's frames, in which no detail is wasted or left to chance. "Thirteen Conversations" is thrillingly smart, but not, like so many other pictures in this vein, merely an elaborate excuse for its own cleverness. As you puzzle over the intricacies of its shape, which reveal themselves only in retrospect, you may also find yourself surprised by the depth of its insights." [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/24/movies/24CONV.html "New York Times" review] ]

Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" said the film is "brilliant ... philosophy, illustrated through everyday events. Most movies operate as if their events are necessary - that B must follow A. "13 Conversations" betrays B, A and all the other letters as random possibilities ... [T] here aren't many filmmakers whose next film I anticipate more eagerly." [ [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020614/REVIEWS/206140301/1023 "Chicago Sun-Times" review] ]

Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" observed, "Writer-director Jill Sprecher ... attempts something very difficult ... That she succeeds to the extent she does - say, 80 percent of the way - is a major achievement and something to get excited about ... [I] ts ambition is enormous, even grandiose and foolhardy ... [It] has a complicated structure, with some incidents presented out of sequential order. The time-juggling lends the film an edge of mystery, which is appropriate, though it's also good that the puzzle is tied up neatly by the finish. Not every scene works. Not every incident or conversation is of equal interest or has a strong pay-off. So what? Sometimes Bergman was boring, too, even in his best films. That's the risk a filmmaker takes when she decides to make a subtle movie. That's the risk the audience takes, as well. But 10 or 12 weak minutes scattered over the course of a film of this quality is a small price to pay." [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/05/31/DD49584.DTL "San Francisco Chronicle" review] ]

Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" said, "Tautly written, resolutely low-key, intricately constructed and very serious about the risky business of being alive, "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. Above all, it has an overwhelming sense of reality atypical of the American cinema." [ [http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-movie000036504may24,0,2837538.story "Los Angeles Times" review] ]

Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" stated, "It takes a while for this oddball film - a mosaic of stories in the style of "Magnolia" - to take hold, but when it does, it grabs you hard ... Sprecher reaches deep into the minds and hearts of her characters in a haunting and hypnotic film that, aptly enough, is a real conversation starter." [ [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5947697/review/5947698/13_conversations_about_one_thing "Rolling Stone" review] ]

Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" awarded the film two out of five stars and commented, "This quirky ensemble movie inevitably suffers from curate's-egg unevenness, though its good points certainly stick in the mind ... Director Jill Sprecher has a cutesy habit of prefiguring scenes with chapter headings that superciliously quote from a previous piece of dialogue, thus attempting to garner a bit of unearned resonance ... The real star is the terrifically forceful Alan Arkin ... If only the film had been all about him." [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2005/jun/17/5 "The Guardian" review] ]

Awards and nominations

*Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor (Alan Arkin, winner)
*Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor (Arkin, winner)
*Chlotrudis Award for Best Film (nominee)
*Chlotrudis Award for Best Original Screenplay (nominee)
*Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Ensemble (winner)
*Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor (Arkin, nominee)
*Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay (nominee)
*San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Director (winner)
*San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Screenplay (winner)
*San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing (winner)

References

External links

* [http://www.sonyclassics.com/13conversations/index-withflash.html Official website]
*imdb title|id=0268690|title=Thirteen Conversations About One Thing