Rating: 
Summary: "If things are bad, they can always get worse"
Review: " Thirteen Conversations About 1 Thing" is like 60's French Existentialist film on Quaaludes. The main message seems to be "If things are bad, they can always get worse". and "If things are good, they will get bad". How to make yourself worried and depressed in a hurry!
Rating: 
Summary: Intellgent, insightful, impressive 'small' film
Review: "13 Conversations About One Thing" is a remarkable 'small' movie directed by Jill Sprecher. She also co-wrote it with her sister, Karen. The written word [print] and film are two entirely different art forms, which, in my opinion, is the basic reason why a book rarely translates easily into a movie. Still, if there is such a thing as a literate movie, this is certainly one of them. Happiness is the subject of the conversations here - how to get it, how to keep it, how to lose it. Several stories connect, interconnect and weave around each other in hypnotic, enigmatic fashion, finally coming to a satisfying conclusion. The Specher sisters see modern urban life as somewhat depressing for most people. It's not the kind of depression that prevents you from getting out of bed. It's the kind brought on by the tediousness and relentlessness of day to day living. All our creature comforts and technological advances have not, the Sprechers seem to believe, done much to make us happier. There are not happy endings for all the memorable characters we meet in the movie, but all of them learn a great deal about the meaning and nature of this elusive emotional state. The best stories are the ones about an attorney [Matthew McConaughey] who only thinks he's happy, an insurance salesman [Alan Arkin] who thinks happiness doesn't exist, and a maid [Clea Duvall] whose innately happy and positive nature is severely threatened. The Sprechers have managed to create characters we can care about, relate to, and almost think of as real. The cast is uniformly excellent. Special mention goes to Arkin and McConaughey. If you are in the mood for a movie that causes you to think, this is a great choice.
Rating: 
Summary: Complexity That Answers To Happiness
Review: "13 Conversations About One Thing" is an emotional film that will surely move its audiences. It stars Alan Arkin, Clea DuVall, Matthew McConaughey John Turturro, and Oscar nominee Amy Irving ("Yentl"). It desplicts four separate storylines that have one thing in common: they struggle with happiness. One loses his money shortly after winning the lottery, one struggles to keep herself together after an accident, the guy who ran her over struggles with guilt, one struggles with catching her husband cheating, and one whose envy threatens becomes self-destructible. The powerful theme within the events is present in every scene. Their life struggles have the intensity to keep audiences watching closely. The complex stories detail so deeply that audiences must watch the film multiple times to fully understand them. Though some questions have yet to be answered, they will be glad afterwards. Despite the time frames moving back and forth, the plot doesn't lose its touch with the chain of events. In fact, it keeps everything more interesting. The emotional theme is accented by the actors who perform their roles wonderful and expressively, especially Arkin. Their performances alone are unforgettable. "13 Conversations About One Thing" is a great drama that will surely please audiences. This will be remembered for a long time.
Rating: 
Summary: 13 conversations that are pretentious and boring
Review: "13 Conversations about one thing" tells the stories of several characters through a series of connecting vignettes:
The characters are: A young woman who cleans for a living (something along the lines of a "Merry Maid" except in this case, the character is a Morose Maid); A discontent supervisor in an insurance company who would prefer that everyone in his office is as miserable as he is; A successful young attorney who crows loudly about his latest courtroom contest; A Physics professor who dumps his wife after deciding that he doesn't want to be content. I found the 4 characters repelling--The maid was depressing, the lawyer was cocky, the supervisor was mean-spirited, and the professor needed a good whack with a 2 x 4. None of characters were appealing in any way whatsoever, and I really didn't care about their little stories. Each of the characters receive some sort of painful lesson and then comes the catharsis. This was all done in a very heavy-handed, unsubtle, clumsy manner. John Turturro really needs to stick with the comedy roles. I don't know why comedians can't realize what a gift they have to make audiences laugh, and just leave it at that. Alan Arkin's acting salvaged this film to the two star level for me, but apart from that, the film was a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Significance of moving scar
Review: ... A large and exceptionally able cast with a story line that encompassed many lives that were intertwined without being obviously contrived. A thought provoking and very tight movie that no doubt could be watched again to pick up more detail.
Rating:
Summary: A Break from Mindless Summer Entertainment
Review: 13 Conversations About One Thing has many progenitors -- my all-time favorite Nashville, Magnolia, Amelie, Smoke, even -- in its shaking up of chronology -- Memento, and -- in its ensemble acting -- Gosford Park. Superficially it plays the familiar themes of random connections, the smallest casual act leading to consequences, and life's not fair. But it elevates those near banalities through a spare script, superb acting, tightly shot interior scenes, and -- when outside -- uncommon, but unmistakeable New York shots. It and its players have meanness, grace, chance, trust, tragedy, hubris, redemption, possibility and -- at its conclusion -- a lot of hope and just desserts in almost all cases. Alan Arkin as a middle-management sour insurance executive performs perhaps the most surprising of the characters' many turns and Matthew McConaughey has never been more true as an actor than when he turns his assistant district attorney character's view that the guilty must be punished continually on himself. Maybe even better than those two, however, is Clea DuVall as a housecleaner who was so close to becoming an angel on her fifth birthday that she effectively becomes one until a breeze blows a shirt aloft from her arms. And how great is it to see Amy Irving on the screen again? Don't wait for the DVD (although you'll probably want to get it anyway for the collection); when 13 Conversations -- which seems to be in fairly limited release --gets to your town, see it. P.S. especially recommended to REM fans, though you'll need to get deep in the credits to find out why.
Rating:
Summary: "Eighteen Inches of Personal Space"and Fate and Happiness
Review: 13 CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ONE THING is a brilliantly quiet meditation on the human plight. Writers Jill and Karen Sprecher have given us one of the more intelligent, thoughtful, challenging AND entertaining films of the last decade. No pretenses here, just a micrscopic view of several individuals whose lives intersect and in doing so teach us a lot about fate, about the concept of 'happiness', about the importance of finding the self while not alienating the other 'selves' on the planet. Jill Sprecher also directs this dream cast with a sensitive eye for Reality that happens to include dreamers as well as pessimists. In this film are some of the finest performances by such actors as Matthew McConaughey, Clea Duvall, John Turturro, Tia Texada, Amy Irving, Alex Burns, and the always superb Alan Arkin. The supporting cast is excellent and kudos are due the casting director for assembling such a fine ensemble of actors. From the opening line (short statements that define each of the sections) this film operates on the assumption that the audience is smart and that assumption is such a relief after the plethora of no-brainers that crowd the theaters. Not that this is JUST an intellectual exercise (somehow that connotes 'dry' or 'boring' to some readers): this is a tender, sensitive, honest, plaintive look at how we behave and respond and survive in this melting pot of humanity. As the physics professor Turturro teaches "We have only 18 inches of personal space" in our world. Our life depends on how we use those 18 inches, our tiny space that abuts countless other personal spaces - bumping, destroying, assisting, respecting. 13 Conversations About One Thing is a splendid achievement by the Sprecher sisters and we can only hope that there are more films of this degree of excellence on their minds.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but missing something...
Review: 13 Conversations About One Thing is a film that deals with issues of doubt, faith, envy, happiness, and most of all, the way our lives are affected by even the smallest event in ways that we often cannot fathom. Obviously, the film is treading upon familiar ground; however, these issues are presented in a fashion that is original enough to avoid any sense of repetitiveness or redundancy.
The film presents us with a variety of characters, each dealing with the issues mentioned above in his or her own way. Towards the end of the film, as the scope slowly broadens and moves from a tight focus on the individual to include a wider canvas in which we can focus on all of the characters at once, the splendidly intricate ripple effect that has taken place between the characters becomes clearer. The strength of the film lies here, when the viewer can see the big picture and the way in which every decision one makes in life can affect the life of another.
The pacing of the film is often deliberately slow and suffocating, which in this case works to achieve the director's goal. The film itself is paced like real life, underscoring the fact that each action does not always elicit an immediate reaction. In reality, only time will tell when that ripple effect has reached it's end, and only then can all it's effects be known.
All in all, this was a good film, with thought provoking themes and very good performances by the actors. What is was missing though was the ability to grab a viewer and make itself truly memorable. The film is certainly worth seeing, but it lacked that certain undefinable something that could potentially make it a great film.
Rating:
Summary: What Do You Want?
Review: 13 Conversations About One Thing is a genial story that begins in the home of Professor Walker (John Turturro), a physicist, who is asked by his wife what he wants. Walker responds--what all people want, happiness. The story itself is as fragmented as the actual search that many face when they search for this emotional state of joy. As the audience is initially led through the story via a number of conversations, it seems like these conversations have no relevance to one another. The story becomes awkward to the degree where a feeling of confusion grabs the audience. However, it becomes apparent that everything is interconnected as the conversations and the story continue. 13 Conversations About One Thing is a delicate experience about several characters search for happiness in daily life. These characters are supported by a terrific cast that carries the story with a intriguing script, which has been directed with an insightful hand.
Rating:
Summary: Make that 14 conversations...
Review: A brilliantly conceived and executed meditation on life, the pursuit of happiness, and fate. What is the "one thing" of the title? It's actually not one thing but several, and the genius of the film is that it makes you--and those watching with you--want to talk about what it means, thus generating a 14th conversation. Alan Arkin is remarkable in this movie, but it's hard to single out any one aspect of the film as better than any other. The script is literate and intelligent; the performances crisp; the structure is unusual and finally persuades viewers of its inevitability. A rare film that manages to evoke emotions and provoke thinking. Buy it! Watch it! Talk about it!
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