Thirteen Conversations About One Thing

Last updated
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
Thirteen conversations about one thing.jpg
Promotional poster
Directed by Jill Sprecher
Written byKaren Sprecher
Jill Sprecher
Produced byBeni Tadd Atoori
Gina Resnick
Starring Matthew McConaughey
Alan Arkin
John Turturro
Clea DuVall
Amy Irving
Cinematography Dick Pope
Edited by Stephen Mirrione
Music by Alex Wurman
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • September 2, 2001 (2001-09-02)(Venice Film Festival)
  • May 24, 2002 (2002-05-24)(United States)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$3,706,652

Thirteen Conversations About One Thing is a 2001 American drama film directed by Jill Sprecher. The screenplay by Sprecher and her sister Karen focuses on five seemingly disparate individuals in search of happiness whose paths intersect in ways that unexpectedly affect their lives.

Contents

Plot

The film is divided into 13 vignettes, each prefaced by an aphorism. Set in New York City, the story revolves around ambitious district attorney Troy, who is stricken with guilt following a hit and run accident in which he injures Beatrice, an idealistic cleaning woman who, forced to reassess her life during her recuperation, finds herself thinking more like her cynical co-worker Dorrie. Mid-level insurance claims manager Gene, unable to cope with his son's downward spiral into drug addiction, is rankled by an unrelentingly cheerful staff member and suffers pangs of regret after firing him without just cause. College physics professor Walker, trying to cope with a midlife crisis, becomes romantically involved with a colleague, an infidelity his wife Patricia is forced to face when his wallet, stolen in a mugging, is mailed to their home and she discovers incriminating evidence inside it.

Cast

Production

The Sprecher sisters scripted Thirteen Conversations About One Thing over the course of eight weeks. The script was completed before Jill's directorial debut Clockwatchers was released in 1997, but due to a lack of funding the film took over three years to make. [1] The plot was inspired in part by events in Jill Sprecher's life, including two muggings and a subway assault. [2] The character of Beatrice is based on Sprecher's experiences when she moved to Manhattan following college graduation: [2] "Clea Duvall's character is very autobiographical ... I was that person who only saw good things around me and then, of course, after getting mugged, I sort of changed my opinion of human beings." [3]

The film premiered at the 2001 Venice Film Festival and was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, the MIFED Film Market in Italy, the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Wisconsin Film Festival before going into limited release in the United States. There, it opened on nine screens, earning $89,499 and ranking #34 on its opening weekend. It eventually grossed $3,288,164 in the US and $418,488 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $3,706,652. [4] [5]

Reception

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 83% of 114 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Thirteen Conversations About One Thing is an intelligent and poignant look at lives intersecting." [6] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [7]

Thirteen Conversations About One Thing was generally well received by critics, [8] who praised the quality of the cast and the treatment of the film's themes. Roger Ebert described the movie as "brilliant ... It is philosophy, illustrated through everyday events." [9] A. O. Scott of the New York Times called the film "both straightforward and enigmatic" and said that "the quiet naturalism of the acting balances the artifice of the script and the almost finicky precision of Ms. Sprecher's frames". For Scott, the film is "thrillingly smart, but not, like so many other pictures in this vein, merely an elaborate excuse for its own cleverness. As you puzzle over the intricacies of its shape, which reveal themselves only in retrospect, you may also find yourself surprised by the depth of its insights." [10] Houston Chronicle reviewer Eric Harrison called the film an "intricately devised and thoughtful comedy", [11] while San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Mick LaSalle said it "makes a case for cinema as a vehicle for conveying moods and ideas and, hardest of all, the internal movements of a soul." [12]

Negative reviewers wrote that the film had problems of tone and a lack of depth to its philosophical underpinnings. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian awarded the film two out of five stars and commented that the film "suffers from curate's-egg unevenness, though its good points certainly stick in the mind." [13] According to Entertainment Weekly critic Ty Burr, the film has "luminous performances, but a genteel tone of despair drags the whole thing down". [14] The Village Voice's Jessica Winter said "the film succeeds only when it peers up from the intro-philosophy book for the occasional glimpse of everyday beauty". [15]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<i>All About My Mother</i> 1999 film by Pedro Almodóvar

All About My Mother is a 1999 comedy-drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and starring Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Candela Peña, Antonia San Juan, Penélope Cruz and Rosa Maria Sardà.

<i>The Conversation</i> 1974 US mystery thriller film by Francis Ford Coppola

The Conversation is a 1974 American mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Robert Duvall. The film revolves around a surveillance expert and the moral dilemma he faces when his recordings reveal a potential murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Arkin</span> American actor, director, and screenwriter

Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director and screenwriter known for his performances on stage and screen. Throughout his career spanning over six decades, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renée Zellweger</span> American actress (born 1969)

Renée Kathleen Zellweger is an American actress. The recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, she was one of the world's highest-paid actresses by 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clea DuVall</span> American actress, writer, producer, and director

Clea Helen D'Etienne DuVall is an American actress, writer, producer, and director. She is known for her appearances in the films The Faculty (1998), She's All That; But I'm a Cheerleader; Girl, Interrupted ; Identity, 21 Grams, The Grudge (2004), Zodiac (2007), Conviction (2010), and Argo (2012).

<i>The Apu Trilogy</i> 1955–59 Bengali film series by Satyajit Ray

The Apu Trilogy comprises three Indian Bengali-language drama films directed by Satyajit Ray: Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and The World of Apu (1959). The original music for the films was composed by Ravi Shankar.

<i>Crumb</i> (film) 1995 American film

Crumb is a 1995 American documentary film about the noted underground cartoonist R. Crumb and his family and his outlook on life. Directed by Terry Zwigoff and produced by Lynn O'Donnell, it won widespread acclaim. It was released in the USA on April 28, 1995, having been screened at film festivals that year. Jeffery M. Anderson placed the film on his list of the ten greatest films of all time, labeling it "the greatest documentary ever made." The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD and Blu-ray on August 10, 2010.

The San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS) is an organization of film reviewers from San Diego-based publications that was founded in 1997.

The 23rd Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, honoring the best in film in 2002, were given on 15 December 2002.

<i>Oceans Thirteen</i> 2007 film by Steven Soderbergh

Ocean's Thirteen is a 2007 American heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien. It is the final installment in the Ocean's film trilogy and the sequel to Ocean's Twelve (2004). The film features an ensemble cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy García, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Ellen Barkin, Al Pacino, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Eddie Jemison, Shaobo Qin, Carl Reiner, and Elliott Gould.

The 7th San Diego Film Critics Society Awards, given by the San Diego Film Critics Society on 20 December 2002, honored the best in film for 2002.

Jill Ann Sprecher is an American film director, producer and writer. Sprecher collaborates on her film projects with her sister, Karen Sprecher, who writes. She is known for her films Clockwatchers and Thirteen Conversations About One Thing and her contributions to Big Love on HBO. Her films feature stories about realistic human experiences and the struggles of women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Mirrione</span> American film editor

Stephen Mirrione is an American film editor. He is best known for winning an Academy Award for his editing of the film Traffic (2000).

<i>No Such Thing</i> (film) 2001 film by Hal Hartley

No Such Thing is a 2001 supernatural drama film directed by Hal Hartley. It tells the story of Beatrice, a journalist whose fiancé is killed by a monster in Iceland. The story is based very loosely on the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the May 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

<i>Wildflowers</i> (film) 1999 American film

Wildflowers is a 1999 drama film directed by Melissa Painter and starring Clea DuVall, Daryl Hannah, Tomas Arana and Eric Roberts. It features former United States Poet Laureate Robert Hass reading some of his own poetry. Filmed in San Francisco and Marin County, California, it was given a limited theatrical release and received a mixed reception from critics.

<i>The Seven-Per-Cent Solution</i> (film) 1976 film by Herbert Ross

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution is a 1976 Oscar-nominated British-American mystery film directed by Herbert Ross and written by Nicholas Meyer. It is based on Meyer's 1974 novel of the same name and stars Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall, Alan Arkin, and Laurence Olivier.

<i>Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage</i> 2010 Canadian film

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage is a 2010 documentary film directed by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn. The film offers an in-depth look at the Canadian hard rock band Rush, chronicling the band's history and musical evolution. The film made its debut at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival, where it earned the 2010 Audience Award. The film was also nominated for Best Long Form Music Video at 53rd Grammy Awards, losing to When You're Strange, a documentary about The Doors. A limited theatrical run began on June 10, 2010 and the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the US and Canada on June 29 of that year. John Rutsey, the band's original drummer, died in 2008; tape-recorded comments from him are incorporated into the film.

<i>Thin Ice</i> (2011 film) 2011 American film

Thin Ice is a 2011 American black comedy film directed by Jill Sprecher and starring Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin and Billy Crudup.

Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela is a 2004 feature documentary film by Nick Day and Maurizio Benazzo about the 2001 Maha Kumbh Mela at Allahabad. The documentary premiered in the USA on May 11, 2004. The film won several awards on the festival circuit and played in theaters across the US and Europe.

<i>Crip Camp</i> 2020 documentary film

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution is a 2020 American documentary film directed, written and co-produced by Nicole Newnham and James LeBrecht. Barack and Michelle Obama served as executive producers under their Higher Ground Productions banner.

References

  1. ↑ Chaw, Walter. "One conversation with Jill Sprecher". Film Freak Central. Archived from the original on 2006-09-27. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
  2. 1 2 Levy, Piet (July 5, 2002). "Happy Trails to You". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
  3. ↑ Grady, Pam. "And One More Thing". Reel.com. Archived from the original on 12 February 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  4. ↑ "13 Conversations About One Thing (2002)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  5. ↑ BoxOfficeMojo.com
  6. ↑ "Thirteen Conversations About One Thing". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Thirteen Conversations About One Thing". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  8. ↑ Thirteen Conversations About One Thing at Rotten Tomatoes
  9. ↑ Ebert, Roger (June 14, 2002). "13 Conversations About One Thing". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  10. ↑ New York Times review
  11. ↑ Harrison, Eric (November 12, 2004). "Thirteen Conversations About One Thing". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  12. ↑ LaSalle, Mick (November 22, 2002). "The pursuit of happiness". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
  13. ↑ Bradshaw, Peter (June 17, 2005). "13 Conversations About One Thing". The Guardian. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
  14. ↑ Burr, Ty (June 7, 2002). "Thirteen Conversations About One Thing". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
  15. ↑ Winter, Jessica (May 22–28, 2002). "Justify Your Existence". Village Voice. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
  16. ↑ "Boston crix key up 'Pianist'". Variety. December 15, 2002. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
  17. ↑ "2002 FFCC Award Winners". floridafilmcritics.com. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.