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13 Conversations About One Thing
Sony Pictures Classics

13 Conversations About One Thing reviews


8.2

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 31 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for language and brief drug use

Starring Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro, Alan Arkin, Clea DuVall, and Amy Irving

Five contemporary stories weaved together into a single tale that examines the dramatic impact people have on one another. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Jill Sprecher Karen Sprecher
DIRECTED BY:	Jill Sprecher
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 19, 2002 Video: November 19, 2002 Theatrical: May 24, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	102 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

It's a remarkable, thoughtful achievement that will make you want to watch it twice. You should.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is brilliant, really. It is philosophy, illustrated through everyday events. Most movies operate as if their events are necessary--that B must follow A. "13 Conversations" betrays B, A and all the other letters as random possibilities.

Variety David Stratton

This intelligent, engaging indie sets out to find a few answers and in the process introduces a clutch of interesting, very human characters.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

The superb ensemble never plays for sympathy, and the movie isn't as depressing as it may sound. Its hushed, contemplative quality is oddly affecting.

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

By the time Sprecher's skeins, set forth in 13 related episodes, come together, we've got as clear a view of the big picture as we got assembling the elements of "Nashville," "Lantana" or "Magnolia".

The New York Times Dana Stevens

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.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Demands the utmost concentration, for to look away from the screen for even a brief moment is to risk losing a plot line or a crucial bit of information, but its cumulative, transporting impact makes it worth the effort. Above all, it has an overwhelming sense of reality atypical of the American cinema.

Boston Globe Loren King

Resonates with intelligence and a poignancy made more sorrowful by what happened to all of us, but especially to New Yorkers, on that terrible day.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

In this movie, only one thing is certain: No one remains the same.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It takes a while for this oddball film -- a mosaic of stories in the style of "Magnolia" -- to take hold, but when it does, it grabs you hard.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

What's exciting is that the Sprechers have delved into territory that is normally the domain of literature and have emerged with a film that's neither overly literary nor simplistic.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Mostly this elegant little film is a case study in the inconsistency of thoughts and feelings. Here, moralists break commandments, intellectuals act emotionally, and cynics have moments of idealism.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The segments are introduced with little clichés or homilies, like "Ignorance Is Bliss," but the fierce intelligence of the script reminds us that sometimes a cliché is the only way to express the ineffable.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Nothing fantastic or supernatural ever happens, but you can still feel cosmic forces at work behind the scenes, conspiring to repeatedly test the movie's characters, doling out reward and punishment in equal doses.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Smart, serious and deftly composed, New York director Jill Sprecher's jigsaw anthology film, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, is the kind of work you want to applaud just for its ambitions.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Avoids pretension by never trying to be more than it is -- an acknowledgment that things frequently are not as bad as they seem. That's a concept that deserves a little spreading.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Arkin has a great and gentle feeling for small-time malcontents, and he knows how to make their woes our own. He does justice to the human comedy -- and redeems the movie.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It starts slowly, but this contemplative drama's cumulative effect is genuinely haunting.

Film Threat Tim Merrill

Encircles the viewer in a comforting, open-hearted humanism. It’s a quiet, modest piece of work, but no less lovely for it.

Austin Chronicle Staff (Not credited)

For a movie about happiness, Thirteen Conversations is terribly joyless. Thirteen Conversations tries hard and its ambitions are provocative, but its conversations often fall like that Zen tree in the forest.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Seems afraid to cut loose in the manner of Robert Altman or Paul Thomas Anderson, so this labor of love suffers from an overly earnest and morose tone. Which, given the cast in Thirteen Conversations, is a real shame.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

In spite of the uniformly strong performances, 13 Conversations largely factors out human nature, leaving a giant puzzle where each piece is pre-determined to fall into place. In the end, the Sprechers have a movie for people who brag about finishing the New York Times Sunday crossword in pen.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

The character crossovers between narratives, however, are too contrived to work.

Entertainment Weekly Ty Burr

Judging by the title, though, Sprecher made the movie she wanted to make, and if you're in the right damp-wool mood, you may connect with it too.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Aspiring to evoke an unreal city stranded in the autumn of the soul, the film succeeds only when it peers up from the intro-philosophy book for the occasional glimpse of everyday beauty.

Empire Kim Newman

Writer-director Jill Sprecher doesn't have the deftness or sad humour that P. T. Anderson uses in his similarly contrived group portraits, but the cast are, at least, individually fine.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 31 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Randy S. gave it a10:
This is the reason films are made. This film gives definition to the word 'art'. I have watched this movie three times, and with each viewing, it gets better and better. Alan Arkin is stunning; the writing is masterful and the rest of the cast, including John Turturro (has he ever made a bad film?) is positively dead-on target with the ebbs, flows, ups and downs and mere coincidences of life, not to mention the use of power that in so many ways, good and bad, can and does affect lives even when we may not know it. This is brilliant filmmaking at its zenith.

Gary O. gave it a9:
Thought provoking, superbly acted. After seeing it, I wanted to watch it again.

Paul S. gave it a 10:
What a piece of great film making! I had never even heard about this film until this week when I happened to find it playing on my cable channel. I must get the DVD! (well, I hope there's a DVD)

Yoon Min C. gave it an 8:
New York movie directed by a female Woody Allen with shades of David Mamet, not to mention the odious P.T. Anderson. Its main characters are middle to uppermiddle class professionals except a young cleaning woman who, however, has a disposition closer to a philosophy or theology student than menial worker; but then, this is really an exercise where everyone's employed as a rag to polish the director's wisdom about life. And, what might that wisdom be? That sometimes we're sh.t out of luck and sometimes we're not. That some unknown always hides around the corner, either as a pot of gold or a blackcat crossing the street. Well, gee whiz, that's profound, isn't it? Of course, the director here knows the thinness of her ideas so she relies on two factors: (1) The ideas are kept fuzzy enough as to mean anything which can pass for provocative but struck me a copout. (2) The elements in the movie are understated, delineated almost as a mathematical formula accompanied to the geometric structure of modestly performed classical piano pieces(intellectual austerity). This is more a problem than a solution. Ultimately, the movie seems uncommitted and a mousy game, what with some flaky New Age imagery, and with motifs that add up neatly(blood spots, white cloth, making beds, etc)into good grammar but nothing like poetry. Amy Iving says people are said to need 18 inches of space for healthy living and remarks how ridiculous it is to put a number on such things. Sadly, the same could be said of this movie, that tries to solve life's meaning thru some formulation ala Godard. Even though the movie concludes that any such formula is useless, and there is no compass to direct us in our lives, the cutesy and annoying intellectual damage had been done and it's IRREVERSIBLE. Of the four major plotlines, the one with Alan Arkin really stands out; Arkin, bitter and cynical, somehow renders much of the mush in the movie immaterial; his character loses his grip on life but Arkin's control of his art is total. Matthew McConahey does well enough as ace lawyer forced to reevaluate his attitudes, but Turturro is as unpleasant and Irving is as annoying as ever. They never rise above stock characterization of people in that income level/profession. Still, the movie shines as indie with above average script, generally fine acting, and ideas stimulating enough for a conversation or two(though not 13)after the viewing.

Charles H. gave it a 10:
Finally a film to contemplate!

Yasmin A. gave it a 10:
This film blew me away! Its themes are profound. It's wonderfully written, acted and directed! I highly recommend it!

Cheryl gave it a 10:
I did connect with 13 Conversations. In my opinion, those who "just don't get it" are those who have never had one of those split-second-no-time-to-think-life-altering experiences for themselves -- yet. When they do, they'll get it.

13 Conversations About One Thing Sony Pictures Classics

13 Conversations About One Thing
Sony Pictures Classics