Thirteen Conversations about One Thing is, as the title suggests, a bit pretentious. Two sisters wrote a script about how all these people’s lives are intertwined and how fragile happiness is. Matthew McConaughey is fine as the sharp young lawyer who gets knocked down 10 pegs; John Turturro is suitably rigid and dissatisfied as a physics professor having an affair; and, best of all, Alan Arkin, who was acting in two movies simultaneously, is flawless as the middle manager who cannot stand frivolity in his insurance office. The worst thing about the movie is not that it lacks a plot. Actually, you keep wondering how all the lives are going to overlap and what will happen when they do. And the actors are good enough to keep things interesting. But so much of the movie is people being thoughtful while tinkly music rattles in the background. The inherent dangers of a thirteen-part movie are that the plot will be too complex and the themes too diverse. In this film, the plot—such as it is—seems to meander along and not try to tie up all the loose ends, which gives the film a natural feel. The themes are all over the map. Happiness is easily destroyed or created by chance, but happiness or unhappiness is the result of our actions. Huh? Nothing we can do can earn us happiness, yet if we adopt a happiness attitude we’ll make ourselves and others happy. Huh? If the movie is saying that happiness is complex, it succeeds but succeeds in developing a pretty obvious theme. Quite forgettable.
posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 2:07 PM by JimBell