THIRTEEN CONVERSATIONS
ABOUT ONE THING

Year: 2001
USA: Sony Pictures Classics
UK: Arrow Film Distributors
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro, Alan Arkin, Clea DuVall, Amy Irving, Barbara Sukowa, Tia Texada, Frankie Faison, Shawn Elliott, William Wise, Peggy Gormley, Malcolm Gets, Charlie Schroeder, Barbara Andres, Phyllis Bash, Alex Burns, Robert Colston, David Connelly, Richard Council, Daryl Edwards, Leo V Finnie, Joel Garland, Avery Glymph, Dion Graham, Paul Klementowicz, Sig Libowitz, Deirdre Lovejoy, Walt MacPherson, Melissa Maxwell, Peter McCabe, A D Miles, James Murtaugh, Eliza Pryor Nagel, Elizabeth Reaser, William Severs, Gammy Singer, Joseph Siravo, Brian Smiar, Victor Truro, James Yaegashi
Director: Jill Sprecher
Country: USA
USA & UK: 104 mins
USA Rated: R for language and brief drug use
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language
USA Release Date: 24 May 2002 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York)
UK Release Date: 17 June 2005


Synopsis

A man approaching middle age decides to change his life. A rising young attorney's plans are thrown into disarray as the result of a single act. A woman faces her husband's infidelity. An envious businessman seeks revenge on a cheerful co-worker and an optimistic young cleaning woman awaits a miracle. Just the ebb and flow of daily New York life: chaotic, isolated, diffuse.

Or is it? How can we know what effect we have on a passing stranger? What if the smallest gesture can change the course of someone's life? Perhaps fate is in fact a product of the choices we make - how we choose to accept seemingly random events, whether or not we opt to see the interconnectedness of things. Perhaps, too there really is light at the end of the tunnel, even if we can't see it yet.

THIRTEEN CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ONE THING weaves five contemporary stories together into a single tale that examines the dramatic impact people have on one another. With a carefully constructed narrative that criss-crosses in time and doubles back on itself, the film offers an unusual glimpse into each character's past, present and future in ways that are both playful and poignant. The ideas it explores - the meaning of true happiness, the notion of karma, the eternal power of hope - strike with particular relevance in our increasingly frenetic, disjointed world.