13 Conversations about one thing

If you liked Magnolia or Short Cuts, you may well appreciate Jill Sprecher’s film since it seeks to interweave several stories told in New York about everyday people in everyday lives, showing how real life issues sometimes intersect and yet also picking at random, moments in someone’s day that are important.

Take Matthew McConaughey’s lawyer Troy, a highly promising lawyer whose life is turned upside down by an incident out driving in his car (reminiscent of Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities), or Alan Arkin’s middle-age manager picking on a fellow employee in the office and getting annoyed merely because the other man is happy and always has a smile on his face or John Turturro’s professor who fails to spot the signs when a pupil of his is suicidal.

Its stories are cleverly drawn-out by Sprecher who concentrates on providing characters of depth in situations we can all identify with, often when there is a dilemma to be faced. It works well up to a point, that point only being obscured by the faint feeling that you wonder where the film is taking you and if there is a profound point to it all. Is this a search for happiness ? Perhaps. Is Sprecher looking to provide a snapshot of everyday lives? Probably. Its not that obvious.

Its one of those films that looks really good on the surface and has scenes of genuine quality reminiscent of Magnolia or Glengarry Glen Ross – but just don’t go looking for a main point to be made through the film. If you see it as a slice of everyday life, you might get the most out of it.

Matt Arnoldi