Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001)

Directed by Jill Sprecher. Starring Alan Arkin, Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro, Frankie Faison, Clea DuVall, Amy Irving, William Wise, Tia Texada, Barbara Sukowa, Rob McElhenney, David Connolly, Shawn Elliott. [R]

The lives of several disparate individuals intersect in unexpected ways while pondering (weak and weary) about unpredictability, luck, and the pursuit of the one thing (happiness). Arkin is an insurance claims middle manager who makes a barroom encounter with district attorney McConaughey, who gets involved in a hit-and-run with DuVall, and so on. Though scripted by Jill and Karen Sprecher with intelligence and ably performed by its cast, this quiet and moody drama has more than its fair share of pretentious moments, its pseudo-philosophical disquisition on random cause-and-effect never takes hold or reaches its earnest goal, and despite all signs of sincerity, the miserablism distances its storylines and characters. When spontaneity is removed from the equation, all that’s left is karma, divine hand, and fate, and the sensation of being jerked around is hard to ignore; this technique may work in a juicy thriller, but not in a formally-plotted jigsaw drama. The cruel way that one of physics professor Turturro’s lectures “folds into” the reality of another character’s suicide within minutes is especially clunky. Traveled through the festival circuit in 2001 before getting a limited US release the following year.

52/100