Thoughts on 13 Conversations about One Thing

Thoughts on 13 Conversations about One Thing: That thing being happiness, this film has a central character whose affect on others is never what he intends until the final scene, when he smiles and waves to a stranger on a New York City train. Alan Arkin’s character, the manager of an insurance agency’s claims unit, fires an irritatingly cheerful employee only to spiral down professionally even as the fired employee moves up. A nice touch that the happiness or unhappiness of these two characters is not related to the events of their lives. The cheerful employee smiles as he leaves the office after being let go, which only nettles the manager further. But other characters in this ensemble movie DO have attitudes about happiness based on their experiences. A lawyer (Matthew McConaughey) who has had an easy life is thrown into depression after he hits a pedestrian with his car. His “hit and run” approach comes back to guilt him. The pedestrian he’s hit lives, but wonder why. She tries, unsuccessfully, to figure out the meaning of her life after the accident. A math professor, played by John Turturro, has an affair that he thinks will change his life . . . but it doesn’t. And so on. The film style is “unadorned realism.” It reminds me of a William Dean Howells’ novel. The director, Jill Sprecher. Sony Pictures, 2001.