Brilliantly original in Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001), Jill Sprecher and her co-writer sister Karen seem to have gone through a card file of used ideas to cobble together this black comedy. There's a little Cedar Rapids to start, then some Fargo, and then maybe. . . . Well, I won't give away the hastily scrambled surprise. Racine is the frozen Midwest burg in this version, and Greg Kinnear brings little saving humor to his role as insurance broker Mickey Prohaska, whose glib geniality and empty bromides don't conceal a pathetic and rapacious soul. Since Mickey doesn't take any pleasure in his conniving, it's hard to care when his schemes to extricate himself from financial woes start to backfire, as they do when he ponders stealing a valuable violin from Gorvy (Alan Arkin), a doddering elderly customer (a bit of Win Win there). Billy Crudup as a deranged locksmith tosses a monkey wrench of sorts into the works, but there's more slush than ice in this disappointing effort.
