13 Conversations About One Thing (***1/2)
review by Jon Waterman

What happens when a lawyer meets a business man at a bar, hits a maid with his car and then sells the car to a college professor who’s cheating on his wife?  You get the chronological story line to this film in the most basic form.
 
The key to the story is the characters.  The lawyer (Matthew McConaughey) loves every minute of his life.  He’s had multitudes of opportunities handed to him and he took full advantage.  Now that he’s run over a girl, and fled the crime scene, life doesn’t seem as bright and cheery.  The businessman (Alan Arkin) has seen nothing but bad times.  If he sees someone enjoying life, he tries to bring them down to his level.  The maid (Clea DuVall) has an optimistic outlook on things and figures she is bound to make more of herself in the years to come.  The professor (John Turturro) guiltily walks through his days putting on different masks when appropriate and nearly never showing his true self.  These main characters occasionally interact with other main roles, but mostly they converse with minor players within their own little universe.  The only link between them all is the summary listed above.
 
Since this is a film about dialogue, let’s discuss the script.  What is the one thing the conversations are about?  All thirteen of them?  Well, those hoping for something dirty are going to be sorely disappointed.  Those hoping for something religious will also not find what they’re looking for.  No, we have here thirteen conversations on the notion of happiness…for the most part.  Just like with any discussion, the main focus can occasionally slip away as natural tangents form.  The movie deals with the concepts of luck and fate to the point where the film should be re-titled to “13 Conversations about Three Things.”  No one wants that, though.  The title is clunky enough as it is.
 
The conversations are well-thought out and easy to digest.  The points from both sides are formulated nicely, appropriate and quick witted.  We get a fantastically smart script from Karen Sprecher and Jill Sprecher (who also directed).  My problem with it lies in the structure.  The film would have made perfect sense as a chronological tale.  Instead we are forced to watch events out of sequence so that we can feel the full emotional punch of everything that was said.  It all seemed unnecessary, however, to the filmmakers’ credit, it made the film less boring.
 
All of the actors are top-notch.  The most riveting performance belongs to Arkin.  His character arcs the most without the other characters noticing.  Arkin glides on that arc like an amusement park ride.  Turturro and McConaughey are nothing but fun to watch, despite the troubles their characters go through.  I couldn’t imagine any other actors filling the roles as perfectly and emotionally as they do.
 
“13 Conversations” surprised me.  It was everything in a small ensemble piece that “Your Friends and Neighbors” was not.  With rich acting, a more than worthwhile script and great cinematography, this film will leave you asking questions about yourself and of the people around you…but in a good way.

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