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| STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED |
| Unmissable |
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| Excellent |
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| Good |
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| Poor |
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| Tragic |
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| FILM DETAILS | Certificate
15 | | Cast
Matthew McConaughey
Alan Arkin
John Turturro
Amy Irving. | | Directors
Jill Sprecher. | | | Screenwriters | | Running Time
104 minutes |
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13 Conversations About One Thing
Jill Sprecher's vignette format follows the P T Anderson model, with less success.
Plot
A series of vignettes exploring a randomly violent, seeming unjust world, among which we follow a lawyer guilty of hit and run defending a mugger guilty of murder. Review
Insurance manager Alan Arkin is annoyed by a cheerful subordinate and fires him when ordered to cut costs. Attorney Matthew McConaughey lands a case against a mugger who's killed a victim, but runs over a girl (Clea DuVall) and drives off without helping. Maths prof John Turturro is so wrapped up in his own problems, he ignores a suicidal student.
All these stories eventually shuffle together and the dialogue is mostly about whether it's possible to be happy in such a randomly nasty world. 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.
Verdict
A series of anecdotes which don't quite add up to profundity.
Reviewed by Kim Newman
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