The film title suggest it is about sexual relations. But "13 Conversations about one thing" hits a home run about an even more fundamental concern - what makes us happy. Through a very involved cast of four main characters smartly intersecting each others' paths, from an early bar scene that it returns to at the end, this film remains a genuine search for that elusive something in our lives. The film is also a mosaic about the human condition, from cynical (the math professor, John Turturo, asking his troubling student why he wants to become a doctor in order to prolong our miserable lives) and egotistical (the prosecutor, Matthew McConaughey, proclaims that luck is merely a poor man's excuse for hard work and faith is the antithesis of proof) and cruel (the young woman, Clea Duvall, with so much hope crippled by an accident that left her saying she had been changed only to the extent that now she was like everyone else) to the transcendental (the double curse by the cynical insurance man, Alan Arkin) and whimsical at the end (the surprise glance between two desperate characters, Arkin and Amy Irving, leaving the subway). Of the four characters, Clea Duvall gets our sympathies and admiration. In her segment, 'Ignorance is Bliss', she symbolizes a certain freshness the world hasn't had a chance to turn stale. Her salvation by the ever smiling Drummond is a profound reversal of the otherwise pointless characters in this film. "13 Conversations" doesn't try to tell us what is happiness as much as it directs us toward trying to find it.
Review of 13 Conversations About One Thing
