One thing life teaches
us quickly is to expect the unexpected. For example, in Jill Sprecher's
13 Conversations About One Thing, Troy (Matthew McConaughey), a
rather self-important lawyer tells a depressed insurance adjuster how happy
he is during Happy Hour at a local bar then, while driving home, he hits
a young woman crossing the street and his life is changed forever. Ms.
Sprecher, a Philosophy graduate from the University of Wisconsin, explores
the experiences of four New Yorkers and how their lives intersect. Although
films about how people's lives are interconnected have become something
of a cliché, Sprecher's film has a freshness that catapults it far
above the ordinary.
One of the New Yorkers
who is forced to confront "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"
is a Physics professor (John Turturro). The professor knows that what works
is to "wake up enthused, to experience life, to be happy" but cannot translate
that into his experience. He is involved in an extra-marital affair with
a fellow teacher (Barbara Sukowa) and is unable to connect with the suffering
of his wife (Amy Irving) or a student who is depressed about his grades.
The film, however, really belongs to veteran actor Alan Arkin who is completely
believable as Gene, an aging insurance executive distraught by the breakup
of his marriage and the travails of his drug addicted son.
At work he is increasingly
annoyed by an employee named Wade (William Wise) who walks around with
a smile on his face and does not let the exigencies of life get to him.
To see how he will react, Gene fires him but that doesn't stop Wade from
looking at the bright side. Realizing how bitter he is becoming, Gene quietly
finds Wade another job without letting him know that he has pulled some
strings. In another sequence, Beatrice, a young housecleaner (Clea DuVall)
believes that we are guided since she had been miraculously saved in a
near drowning incident as a child. Her faith is shaken to the core, however,
after she is hit by the car of the young attorney and is accused of stealing
a watch by a client she had grown to admire. To the dismay of her close
friends who relied on her optimism, Beatrice now believes that things in
life happen for no reason and we are powerless in the face of a random
universe.
13 Conversations About
One Thing ends up where it began, with a conversation between one who
can only see the positive in life and the other, only the negative. During
the course of the film, Ms. Sprecher examines life itself in all its ups
and downs and its multifaceted contradictions. Although she does not preach
or overtly put the experiences of her characters into context, it is clear
that in her view there are no coincidences and that patterns emerge when
we reflect from a distance on seemingly unconnected events. She depicts
how the small things: the knowing smile of a stranger or the reaching out
to others without asking anything in return can be among the most important
ingredients in a happy life. Recently I said that the films I'm attracted
to are those that are honest, intelligent, sensitive, and thought provoking.
13 Conversations About One Thing is a perfect example and I am looking
forward to seeing it again.