Set in post-9/11 New York, this largely evocative dramedy interweaves the stories of five disconnected individuals who share an unspoken emotional malaise that shadows their attempts at returning to normal life.
Set in post-9/11 New York, this largely evocative dramedy interweaves the stories of five disconnected individuals who share an unspoken emotional malaise that shadows their attempts at returning to normal life.
audience
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Average Rating: 2.6/5
User Ratings: 18,355
A collection of everyday New Yorkers struggle to carry on with their increasingly stressful lives a year after the city was forever changed by the 9/11 terrorist attacks in Brooklyn-native Danny Leiner's ensemble-cast slice of life. Dr. Trabulous (Tony Shalhoub) is a gifted psychologist with a special knack for truly understanding his patients. When an ordinary businessman (Jim Gaffigan) who has witnessed a terrible office tragedy seeks to gain the insight of the seasoned professional, Dr.
Trabulous helps to release a hidden rage that has slowly been eating away at the man's troubled soul. Meanwhile, in the culinary world, Great New Wonderful pastry shop proprietor Emme Keeler (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is about to discover that unseating the woman known as the Queen of Cake (Edie Falco) doesn't come without some heavy consequences. Elsewhere in the city, troubled couple Allison (Judy Greer) and David Burbage (Tom McCarthy) fight to save their marriage and break through to their curiously overconfident ten-year-old boy. Avi (Naseeruddin Shah) and Satish (Sharat Saxena) are immigrants and best friends who work together as security guards and wander the city making observations about contemporary America until their opposing perspectives are challenged by an unexpected development in their lives that neither saw coming. And despite the comfort she takes in her daily routine, Julie Berman (Olympia Dukakis) discovers that her passion for life has long since died, until a visit with a childhood friend helps her to realize just what she's been missing all these lonely years. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Not all the little stories and vignettes work (some seem almost pointless), but most of the performances, especially a haughty luncheon under a veil of politeness with Gyllenhaal and Falco, are spot on, involving and revealing.
It may be the 9/11 movie to which the most people can relate. For most of us, that date wasn't about personal heroics or losing loved ones or survival. It was about processing the impossible and realizing that life, with all its ups and downs, must go on.
While the film rarely imparts a true sense of messy everyday feelings and the strife of real life, the fine actors take your mind off the shortcomings.
Set on the one-year anniversary of the twin towers' collapse, the drama interweaves five stories about New Yorkers. It's a testament to the city's resolve to resume life as normal.
...director Danny Leiner uses a dainty palette of tristesse (untouched when he made Dude, Where's My Car?) to suggest that the shadow of 9/11 makes every discontent more pathetic.
...The Great New Wonderful boasts a pervasively aimless atmosphere that slowly but surely wears the viewer down and ensures that the film's overtly positive elements are ultimately rendered moot.
While it's not always successful at doing so, this film does have its perceptive, thoughtful moments. And it features one of the best ensemble casts in recent memory.
The movie itself is having an identity crisis; it tries to make 9/11 a significant day in these people's lives and it has nothing to do with that day, both at the same time.
Capitalizing on tragedy - blatantly and superficially. The script is too unspecific. It expects the audience to fill in the blanks of these characters' lives with our own interesting anecdotes and vocabulary. There's nothing insightful or different about these people. They're soooo regular. Just regular people
dealing with 9/11. A slice of life that is too half-baked.I was hoping to like another Danny Leiner movie, but I guess the only similarity between this and H&K is the Indian demographic. In all seriousness though, I found Satish's and Avi's characters the most intriguing for their seamless melding of Hindi and English.
Much less crappy than I thought it would be. A handful of good character studies done by good actors made it decent. Especially Tony Shaloub and his A-hole character that he always seems to play when he isn't Monk. Plus Judy Greer is nice to look at.
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