13 Conversations About One Thing is a smartly written and wonderfully acted movie about happiness and fate. It takes four characters and blends their stories into a delicate but potent mix. The movie starts with a scene whose significance will be understood at a much later stage.
John Turturro, playing a physics college professor is having dinner with his wife (Amy Irving) and discusses an act of violence that he suffered, trying to analyze the horror of it all and find significance and meaning in what occurred.
The act itself and its impact on the professor are not clear to the viewers at this stage but will become clear later on. This is the first hint to what will be one of the movie’s major themes – one event is able to shake a person down and cause a change. An irreversible change.
The four 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 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.
The performances are all very strong, especially Alan Arkin as a cynical manager in an insurance agency and Clea Duvall as a house cleaner with a cheerful outlook until catastrophe strikes. Matthew Mcconaughey and John Turturro are also perfectly cast. The plot (or plots) of 13 Conversations is compelling, but is secondary to the questions it raises about finding meaning and happiness in an often harsh and chaotic world. The tone of the film is often brooding, yet the message is ultimately hopeful.
Character to watch: Matthew McConaughey as Troy.
Journal your answers to the following questions after you watch the movie.
- How does this particular character’s journey compare with yours?
- Did the character develop certain characteristics during the movie that you have or that you would like to have? If so, what are those characteristics?
- What obstacles did this character face? What was his or her biggest challenge?
- What would you have done differently if you had been in the same position as the character?
- Is this character the type of person you would be friends with? Why or why not?