Alienated and bitter, Gene lives alone and only sees his former wife when they meet in court at the trial of their wayward son, a petty thief and drug addict. We meet Gene, an insurance company manager who has, in Walker Percy’s memorable line, achieved success but failed at life. We meet Walker, an engineering professor whose marriage and life, unlike the tidy and predictable formulas which direct the cosmos, are spiraling out of control. Though his involvement is never discovered, the guilt over his wrong choice slowly corrodes his soul. As a prosecutor it has been easy for him to assume the accused are always guilty, but now he discovers that he has far more in common with the felons than he had ever imagined. We meet Troy, an attorney celebrating a court victory who will flee from an accident after the party. There are no easy answers here, nor a tidy ending-as if the film’s producers expect the 14th conversation to be ours. One person’s answer prompts a question in someone else, good things do not always happen to good people, tragedy can strike when we least expect it, and contentment is fleeting in a world in which disappointment and suffering lurk just around the corner.ġ3 Conversations is a remarkable window of insight into the lives of people who are just like us, finite creatures who yearn for meaningful relationships in a world in which honesty compels us to face the fact that try as we might, very little in life turns out exactly as we had planned. The conversations unfold throughout the film, following the trajectory of each character’s life. The one thing we all talk about: whether happiness, significance and meaningful relationships can be found in a world that is not only broken, but where life is finally beyond our control. The film is divided by title screens into thirteen vignettes, each containing a conversation about one thing. Though they don’t know one another, their lives are intertwined. It allows us to watch three groups of ordinary people pursuing the ordinary events of their lives. Very occasionally a movie comes along that raises so many important issues, so clearly, so compellingly, that discussing it with friends seems mandatory. Movies Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (Jill Sprecher, 2001)
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