Customer Reviews

The Great New Wonderful

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The cover of the movie said "A brilliant comedy" and I didn't see any brilliance nor any comedy. Half way through I asked my wife if she knew what this movie was about; she didn't know either. It's the next day and I still don't know. As a very open minded person I usually really enjoy the odd movies. This one puzzlles me how it ever got off the ground. If you have a few hours to waste, watch it.

Although it takes a bit long to get off the ground, and it never really explains what it is really about, The Great New Wonderful is a sometimes quirky, always bittersweet exercise in how New Yorkers are soldiering on after September 11th. The portrait is one of melancholy as this disparate and eclectic group of people from all walks of life goes through their paces, consistently jumpy, often frightened and always sad.

For five sets of New Yorkers life in September 2002 is still just as much of a struggle as it was after that terrible day on 2001. Two youthful and nice parents Allison (Judy Geer) and David Burbage (Tom McCarthy) are at the end of their tether emotionally. As their sex life gradually diminishes, they spend their days worrying about their ten-year-old hyperactive son Charlie (Billy Donner) who is disobedient at home and violent to his classmates at school.

Sandie (Jim Gaffigan) is a mild-mannered but tightly wound survivor of 9/11 - apparently he worked on the seventh floor of the World Trade Center. Things would be fine except for the goading of a dotty therapist (Tony Shalhoub) his employers have forced him to consult. Emme (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is an astute and ruthless young cake decorator who owns The Great New Wonderful, a pastry company that has lost out to the Queen of Cake, Safarah (Edie Falco).

Judy Berman (Olympia Dukakis) is a working class senior who is forced to put up with her mechanical husband who does nothing but watch television all day and after dinner retire to the terrace for a smoke. They do not talk and the only thing that keeps Judy going is the artwork she does in their small kitchen. One day, a childhood friend bumps into her, and they reconnect, their friendship perhaps a harbinger of hope.

Best friends Avi (Naseerudin Shah) and Satish (Sharat Saxena) are working class immigrants, who work as security guards and minders for diplomats, particularly for an Indian general who is currently visiting New York City. But their friendship is threatened when Satish is inappropriately rough with a Japanese tourist. Then Avi confesses that he had sex with a young woman and now feels guilty about it.

As these people go about their lives, some of them occasionally cross paths, most particularly in an elevator that stalls between floors, and when a plane flies low overhead, they become wary and frightened. The characters in this drama written by Sam Catlin are very fragile and vulnerable people who often react in anger and violence and who are still trying to live with the consequences of grief.

All are faced with difficult choices and decisions and when things do not go the way they want, they either react with violence or frustration. For the most part, they seem to be avoiding the trauma of 9/11. Not all the little stories and vignettes work - some are even a bit boring in places - but most of the performances, especially a haughty luncheon under a veil of politeness with Gyllenhaal and Falco, are spot on, involving and very revealing. Mike Leonard September 06.

To be honest, this could have been a good movie but sadly wasn't. Very slow moving and not funny what so ever.... I also think the 9/11 tie in was to just draw a bigger audience...... Don't buy it. Rent if it is the last thing available (even after checking out the cartoon section at the video store).

*****
This movie is not for everyone. It is being billed as an "intelligent comedy" and I would not call it that. It is more of an intelligent drama with dark comedic overtones. If you are looking for a ha-ha funny comedy, don't get this movie, as it is not light-hearted, either, as the name implies. However, for the right viewer, I would have to say that it really is a great movie, it is absolutely new, and I found it wonderful, too.

The movie is ostensibly about five New Yorkers and the details of their lives a year after 9/11. These characters were not involved in the 9/11 tragedy directly, but it shows how the stress of just living in the city where this tragedy happened has affected each of their lives and the conclusions about their lives they've arrived at by the end of the movie. The five stories interweave but can be watched separately in the special features section. I highly recommend watching them together, though, because there are parallel elements between the stories, even though at first they are not obvious. In general, I see this film as being about the stress of living our lives today, and the choices we make about our problems.

Now, here's why I think this movie is not getting rave reviews---when I watched it the first time I thought "This is just dumb"...in other words, I didn't get it at all---but since then, I've never had a movie haunt me so much. The more I think about it the more meaning I find in it. Have you ever watched a movie like that? I usually either love them or feel like I've wasted my time. So this movie is definitely different. It is subtle and profound, and has to "sink in". If you have someone to watch movies with who enjoys discussing them afterwards (and your friend is pretty intelligent and introspective), then the experience will be even better. I cannot stop thinking about it, which is a new experience for me.

The acting is fantastic, and includes a cast of respected actors (see the description of their past roles above).

I rented it first, and then bought it, which I would recommend. If you are the right viewer, watching this movie will be a new experience for you, one that will make you think about life in general, and one you will never forget. You'll want to watch all the special features, and the movie over and over again.
*****

This is a decent little movie, interweaving five episodes set in NY in September 2002. References to the event of a year before are minimal.
Sometimes people from different story lines ride the same elevator. That's as much interconnection as you get.
For the life of me I will not understand why amazon touts it as a lighthearted comedy. My DVD copy even calls it a `brilliant comedy' on the cover. I don't get it. There is almost no single funny moment in the film. All episodes are essentially tragic. The need to laugh once in a while is like the whistling in the dark.
A couple can't cope with their sociopath of an obese son.
Two competing pastry queens drive each other towards suicide.
A shrink cures a man from his hidden aggression by bringing it out into the open, unless he causes it.
A woman finally tries to murder her hated husband.
A loud mouth macho security guard finds that living up to his boasts is more than he bargained for. Of all the stories, this is maybe the only one that one can laugh about without losing self respect.
The movie is neither great nor memorable, it is just interesting and honest enough to stay with it.
Lighthearted comedy? Tell me another one!

I picked it up because of Colbert and Gaffigan's names on the cover figuring if they chose to be involved in it it would at least be creative if not funny. It's just slow and boring. Another formulaic attempt to find beauty and tragedy in the minuitae of everyday human existance. The characters and situations are more developed than those in 21 Grams or Coffee And Cigarettes but not as much as those in American Beauty or You And Me And Everyone We Know.

Danny Leiner has provided us with a quiet little collection of stories written by first-time writer Sam Catlin in the form of overlapping lives of people one year from the trauma of 9/11. Though billed as a comedy, the 'comedy' comes more from the nuances of reality that has settled into Manhattan and the world since that treacherous event. Yes, there are humorous moments in these collected tales, but there is always a dark side that predominates, largely due to not only to the fine script and directing, but also to an amazingly gifted cast of ensemble actors.

September 2002, Manhattan, and we gradually meet a psychiatrist (Tony Shalhoub) as he 'interrogates' a sugar addicted man with internalized anger issues (Jim Gaffigan); two fragilely connected parents (Judy Greer and Tom McCarthy) coping with their obese sociopathic young son; the elderly Judie (Olympia Dukakis) coping with her boring and distant husband; two competing pastry chefs (Maggie Gyllenhaal and Edie Falco) whose vapid lives are focused on creating cakes for silly events; and two Indian bodyguards (Naseeruddin Shah and Sharat Saxena) who spend their days protecting officials while dealing with home front crises. How these five stories develop and overlap in the early days of September demonstrate how ordinary people have been coping with the incomprehensible act of a year ago. As the first year anniversary of that event arrives, each of the five stories reaches its own peak with its individual climaxes of action and the subtlety in which each ordinary tale plays out is mesmerizing.

There are no major insights here, no noisy confrontations with the seed act that occurred, just life among survivors doing what they have done to make it through another year. Every role is played with aplomb by this fine cast of actors - each knowing just when to let the heart show and the courage work itself out. It is a gentle film that allows us to reflect and think about how we all have handled the unimaginable. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, September 06

Long Version:

How does that Meat Loaf song go? Two out of Three Ain't Bad? I guess that means one out of three is bad. This movie was neither Great, nor Wonderful. And as soon as it is no longer considered "new," it will be zero out of three.

I wanted to enjoy the movie. For most of the movie I enjoyed the characters and felt for them in certain scenarios. Something was just missing. Well, I figure two things were missing: cohesion and closure.

I can appreciate the idea of many smaller stories combined to form one bigger super-movie. Maybe I am just used to seeing it more when the stories have some common element. These stories never intertwined and nothing, except the emotional roller coaster of life in The Big Apple was the same for any of the characters.

There were emotional highs and lows. Hopes were exalted and dashed. And all the while...nothing really happened. There was no story; we simply follow a few people on their day-to-day routines and see the happiness and pain they experience at whatever intervals they experience them.

And then the movie ends. That's it.

Well to be fair they showed one more scene that only serves to compound the abundance of loose ends and detract from any feeling of compassion. I won't spoil the final scene, but it was not the most "pro-family" scene I have ever watched.

The movie does have a decent list of names associated with it. Probably my favorite of the bunch is Jim Gaffigan. He may not be the funniest comedian, but I have enjoyed seeing him in what I can when I can. He and Tony Shalhoub bantered well together as doctor and patient. Their story was a little forced, but the two had good chemistry.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is finally beginning to grow on me. Or then again it might just be the part she played was much more...wholesome than roles she has had in the past (e.g. Happy Endings)

It certainly would take much more than additional witty banter from Jim Gaffigan and wholesomeness from Maggie Gyllenhaal to even make The Great New Wonderful into A Movie Worth Seeing. I do not recommend you see this movie. I will even go one step further to recommend you avoid it altogether.

This movie is disjoint, at times shallow, unreal. Yes, it's complex, but overtly and overly so. The only way the storylines meet is all the protagonists end up in an elevator towards the end - a sad attempt to bring together the stories.

Pathetic.

The Amazon review gets this film just about right, but that doesn't help its lack of comedy. You won't chuckle at this. A wry smile is maybe the most rise it may give you. Made in the wake of 9/11, it tries to comment on how that made things different for a diverse group of New Yorkers. Each storyline is separate and doesn't overlap, so it keeps cutting between them all, picking up the pace as the film progresses. I thought the two Indian security guards were funniest, one of them unbearably wound up, the other relaxed and eccentric. If you need a point to your movies, you may miss it here, but the film develops an impact as it goes along, if you don't hit eject first.