Rate this Movie 
How does the Tomatometer work
Reviews Counted:15
Fresh:11
Rotten:4
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: 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.
Theatrical Release:Jun 23, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $39,712
Synopsis: Viewers may be shocked to learn that a film set one year after September 11th was directed by Danny Leiner, the man responsible for such stoner comedies as HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE and... [More]
Starring: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Edie Falco, Tony Shalhoub, Olympia Dukakis
Director: Danny Leiner
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.
Top CriticIt 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.
Top CriticLuminous, affecting, and at times humorous take on 9/11's aftermath.
Top CriticWhile 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.
Top CriticSet 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.
Top Critic...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.
Top CriticThe stories don't really connect, and for all the film's portentous shots of the changed skyline, there's no sense that 9/11 really changed these people.
Top CriticWhy is such a talented cast doing such weak material? This finally becomes clear an hour in, when most of the actors get to do what they love: play emotional breakdowns.
Top CriticThe stories are eye-opening and heartwarming at the same time, but you'll be moved less by empathy for the characters than by the summoning of your own emotional memories. This movie is personal.
Top CriticThis mysteriously rich, mostly wonderful comedy-drama takes place in September 2002, when the lives of its unconnected New Yorkers have returned to something that looks like normal. 'Normal' being a thin layer of tissue paper over the abyss.
Top CriticDanny Leiner's film offers a collection of quiet, tidy vignettes that occur simultaneously in New York City a year after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Top CriticThe Great New Wonderful squanders a fine opportunity: to examine the emotional effect of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, on the lives of New Yorkers one year later.
Top CriticFor an independent film, it is quite a rewarding big-time experience.
Top CriticThe film, set in September 2002, employs 9-11 as a thematic crutch, positing the attacks as little more than a backdrop for its characters' other, infinitely less significant woes.
Top CriticIf the writer, Sam Catlin, can’t begin to make the storylines jell, he does elicit squirms and titters from the shark-filled moats between peoples’ conscious and unconscious lives.
Top Critic
Moviefone lists their top ten nude scenes from film in 2009.
Thomas Leupp offers us Hollywood.com's take on the best films of the year.
Last week, MSN gave us their top 09 films. Now see what their favorites of the decade are!
TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.
Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!
RSS Feeds
Comment
