13 Conversations About One Thing

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amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write("<a href=javascript:popUp('http://buybox.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=reelmoviecriticc&link_code=xsc&creative=23424&camp=2025&path=/dt/assoc/tg/aa/xml/assoc/-/B00006L927/reelmoviecriticc/ref=ac_bb1_,_amazon')><img src=http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/remote-buy-box/buy1.gif border=0 alt='Buy from Amazon.com' ></a>"); document.close(); </script> <noscript> <form method="POST" action="http://buybox.amazon.com/o/dt/assoc/handle-buy-box=B00006L927"> <input type="hidden" name="asin.B00006L927" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="tag-value" value="reelmoviecriticc"> <input type="hidden" name="tag_value" value="reelmoviecriticc"> <input type="image" name="submit.add-to-cart" value="Buy from Amazon.com" border="0" alt="Buy from Amazon.com" src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/associates/add-to-cart.gif"> </form> </noscript>  </B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 39 WIDTH="588"><div> <B>13 Conversations About One Thing   </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Wingdings 2" ><B>êêê</B></FONT><B>   Stars </B></div> <div> <B> Rated R</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> Reviewed by Shelley Cameron</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="588" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="588"><div> Winter of their discontent</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="593" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="293"><div> Alan Arkin: Gene </div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="293"><div> Matthew McConaughey: Troy</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="293"><div> Amy Irving: Patricia</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="293"><div> John Turturro: Walker</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="293"><div> Director: Jill Sprecher</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="293"><div> Clea DuVall: Beatrice</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> A different take on urban angst, as told through the loosely connected stories of a group of New Yorkers, including Gene (Alan Arkin), an unhappy insurance claims manager struggling to understand contentment.  He spends much of his time in irritated bewilderment over the impossibly happy lives of others.  How could co-worker Wade "Smiley" Bowman (William Wise) be truly happy when he has had a whole career of bad luck with money and lost jobs?  This disturbs Gene deeply.  It confounds him that satisfaction could be possible from the simple things in life, disturbs him to the point of gleefully trying to elicit some nice, normal depression from his subordinate when the opportunity presents to knock the wind out of his sails. Does everything we do impact ourselves and others in unpredictable ways? Is it mere fate that rules our lives, or something else?</div> <bR> <div> When we first encounter Troy (Matthew McConaughey), he appears the opposite of Gene.  He feels in the driver's seat of life as a prosecuting attorney who works hard and smart, and is well rewarded. Then, one-day fate deals him a blow that sends him spiraling on a dark excursion and he must look at just how much control he ever had.  Similarly, Walker (John Turturro) and wife Patricia (Amy Irving) are unhappy and while trying to blame it on a recent mugging and its angry aftermath, it is clear that the discontent comes from other places.  The fourth central character, Beatrice (Clea Duvall) is a housecleaner, who manages to keep putting on that happy face.  Her story falls under the "no good deed goes unpunished" maxim.  We are asked the question, "Why?" for all of them.</div> <bR> <div> Director Jill Sprecher's preoccupation with the role of fate, while perhaps a bit unbalanced, is nonetheless compelling.  What is provocative is not that stuff happens and it changes these lives, often for the worse, but it is the way she lets us contemplate the issues through these specific people.  I suspect the influence of Krzysztof Kieslowski's magnificent <I>Decalogue,</I> as there is a similarity in both content and style.  The clean visual style and bare unreal NYC streets play somewhat like a fable.  These characters are all pretty much ordinary people and doing reasonably well, until circumstances force them to reexamine their lives.  The irony in this regard is that the most optimistic in the ensemble, the maid Beatrice and the professionally marginal Smiley, are the ones we most wish to be like, even with their rather large obstacles to success. Are we to surmise that they have not yet been jaded by life experiences? Or are some people just blessed by fate in different ways?  </div> <bR> <div> The film, of course, does not answer these questions that have often been asked, in literature, philosophy and naturally in real life.  It leaves us the issue to ponder, but a few more everyday moments that bring a small smile would not have diminished the question.  These are people you may see on the subway or in your workplace with faraway, somber looks as you make your way to and from each day.  In short, they are us.  </div> <bR> <div> First rate performances from all, with Arkin particularly and devastatingly authentic as the closet tyrant of the workplace, resulting from misery in his personal life.  Co-written by the director and her sister, Karen Sprecher, who also co-wrote the acerbic, but more amusing, <B>Clockwatchers</B><I>,</I> released in 1997.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="588"><div> Shelley Cameron <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >Ó</FONT> 2002</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> <A HREF="mailto:shlcameron@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:shlcameron@aol.com"><U><U>Shelley@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>