13 Conversations About One Thing (2001)

Want to see it?

Seen it?

0
1
2
3
4
5
Rate this movie.

Buy it now on DVD

Starting at $7.35

Want to buy it?

Write a review

Discuss it

Add to lists

Recommend it

Get recommendations

Watch trailer

Directed by Jill Sprecher.

Starring Frankie R. Faison, Amy Irving, Alan Arkin, John Turturro, Matthew McConaughey, Clea Duvall.

Watch trailer

Following up on her acclaimed debut, Clockwatchers, Jill Sprecher spins this intricate ensemble film about life's big questions. Set in New York City, the film focuses on five different characters with radically different perspectives on life. Gene (Alan Arkin) manages a large insurance company and is a compulsive pessimist, constantly bursting the bubbles of his more cheery colleagues. Walker (John Turturro), who holds a similarly bleak view of the world, decides that he cannot stand another day in his dull life as a physics professor and thus promptly dumps his wife, Patricia (Amy Irving). Troy (Matthew McConaughey) is an up-and-coming lawyer whose career is derailed after a hit-and-run accident. And Beatrice (Clea Duvall) is a modest cleaning woman hoping for a miracle. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

[more]

Reviews and discussions

True Truth: The 24th Day
by jlgdrd in Wicked Fun

hasn't rated it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"Pretty early in The 24th Day, it becomes apparent it was taken from a play, a dodgy proposition at best. Adhering to a key location, as plays often do, can be a successful approach, or it can crash and burn. Very slowly. It depends on the nature of the piece. The 24th Day has, essentially, two characters and it can be difficult to transfer a prolonged confrontation to the big screen. In a theater, we can see how they stand in relation to each other, our eyes instinctively find the face or physical dynamic that warrants our attention. In a film, the director chooses for us, deciding whether it's more important to see the expression of the man speaking or reacting. Tony Piccirillo, who wrote the play in question, and directed the film, has here carried it off. Scott Speedman (Tom) and James Marsden (Dan) hold our focus, without Piccirillo's shot manipulation feeling intrusive or neutral. Which, of course, is exactly the idea.Like Rashomon or 13 Conversations About One Thing, The 24th ... " [More]

Thirteen Conversations about On ...
by JimBell in JimBell Blog

lost interest.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"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&mdas ... " [More]

Tags: disillusionment , guilt , isolation , obsession , lonliness
View all