The Great New Wonderful (2005) Reviews

• How a sudden, unnamed shock forced a city to look at itself in the mirror

  kivers2006-06-22

  The appearance of "United 93" and "The Great New Wonderful" at around the same time is a very fitting artistic take on the impact of 9/11 on the hearts and minds of Americans. So many other films have cropped up here and there, nearly all of them heartless polemical tirades from various points of view, which I think reflected more on feelings and opinions that existed before 9/11 and merely used the tragedy as a vehicle. While "United 93" was a monument to the victims of 9/11, and how they faced down the human and political significance of that morning, "The Great New Wonderful" is a reflection of how the rest of us live with the personal, emotional aftermath of that day, whether we had a direct connection to the events or not. "The Great New Wonderful" will probably be the only film dubbed a '9/11 movie' which didn't resort to any melodramatic exposition from that day to make its point. No flaming towers, no cheap-and-easy "my brother, the fireman who died/my sister, who was in Tower 1/my father, the cop...." plot devices. It vividly demonstrates the emotional, collateral role that 9/11 played in the lives of tens of millions of Americans who lived through that day and were shaken and transformed in ways that were too personal to articulate to others or themselves. Beyond the film's calendar setting and the concluding moments which take place at about 9am on September 11, 2002, there is only one oblique reference to the attacks impacting a character directly, hidden among the films many humorous lines (an apt New York coping mechanism woven through the whole script), and it becomes a climax of its own, the moment in the story when each character's pent-up personal hell explodes forth. Mid-way through the film, many of the far-flung characters end up together in an elevator. There is a sudden jolt, the lights flicker, and the sound of rattling cables and wires fills the space. It is a mere moment. Then, the elevator restarts and arrives at the floor of Sandie (Jim Gaffigan), who has spent the film attending therapy sessions in his company's break room with Dr. Trabulous (played by the sublime Tony Shaloub) to discuss some unnamed office tragedy which took place on "the 7th floor" of the company's offices in which several co-workers were killed. Sandie steps off the elevator, and a cranky old man in the back corner, seen earlier asking a cantankerous question at a Queens neighborhood meeting, mutters "well, you made it out alive," to which the cheery Sandie replied, "yeah!" and smiles. Minutes later, Sandie has finally opened up with Dr. Trabulous, in tears, realizing that behind his scarily cheerful, productive, doe-eyed American veneer he is seething with rage and anguish and trauma. In due course, the explosion inside Sandie is so primal that he leaves the doctor with a head wound on the floor and flees on foot to his parents' home in Connecticut. But Sandie is an exception -- being the only presumed direct victim of the attacks, he is the only one with a doctor caring for his wounds. The rest of the characters -- from Olympia Dukakis' somnabulent, elderly housewife to the self-absorbed yuppie couple (Judy Greer and Thomas McCarthy) who cannot grasp the venality of their son's mental illness -- like us were left to struggle alone. Perhaps the most ingenious subplot involves the pointless rivalry between Maggie Gyllenhaal and Edie Falco, a signature New York/U.S. upper-class drama in a laughably (but all too believable) superfluous world where rich, idiotic clients pay tens of thousands of dollars for birthday cakes, and the two wealthy cake-artists are vying for the decisive favor of a spoiled, uninterested teen-aged heiress. (Will Arnett's turn as Gyllenhaal's pampered husband is a great touch.) So brilliant -- cakes! -- representing the ruthless spiritual hollowness of so much of Manhattan's gliteratti before 9/11, and as Falco says in her one, powerful scene, "it's amazing how after everything that has happened, everything is still the same." "The Great New Wonderful" is such an unsentimental, powerfully true look in the mirror; it is required-viewing in the 9/11 oeuvre. While "United 93" is a raw, draining and ultimately necessary catharsis akin to an open-casket wake, this film will stay with you much, much longer. It makes stark moral statements -- some might even argue it explores the human, non-political, universal root of the murderous criminality of 9/11 itself -- and sometimes the audience's reaction in the theater (keep an eye out for when the nervous laughter in the room subsides, or if it subsides at all) is just as fascinating as the action on screen.

• Beautiful - Subtle - Stunning

  kmd852005-04-30

  If hysteria was the symptom of the nineteenth century and schizophrenia that of the twentieth, The Great New Wonderful, confronts the question of what symptoms will characterize the twenty-first – and what better place to look than Post 9/11 New York City? Dr. Trabulous (Tony Shalhoub) nails it when he says that he senses in patient Sandie (Jim Gaffigan) "anger" and "disappointment". These symptoms characterize the five stories that weave through the film. In Emme's story we see a fancy cake maker (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who is trying to nab the top spot from competitor Safarah Polsky (Edie Falco). David (Thomas McCarthy) and Allison (Judy Greer) are struggling to raise a troubled, overweight, possibly violent child. Judy Hillerman (Olympia Dukakis) finds herself going through the motions in her Coney Island prison of a middle class life and in Avi's story, he (Naseeruddin Shah) and his partner face changed expectations of other people. In each anger and disappointment hold sway. The film has very subtle references to its post-9/11 setting. Avi looks up when he hears a plane pass overhead. Allison turns on the nature noises machine on the bedside table in an unsuccessful attempt to drown out the noise of sirens that fills the bedroom. And Safari Polsky, bowing under the weight of her own ambition, sighs when she says that after all that has happened nothing has changed. The tension builds throughout the film and the comedy becomes blacker as we understand the characters better and come to empathize with their symptoms. Danny Liener, Sam Catlin and Matt Tauber do a great job weaving the stories together into a coherent whole, despite the ambiguities left in each story. The film does not attempt to answer the questions it poses, simply extracting them from what seems like a smooth exterior. Cinematographer Harlan Bosmajian does an incredible job with limited time and resources creating a fantastic looking film. Like Salman Rushdie's book, Fury, GNW illustrates the underlying anger characterizing contemporary cosmopolitan life and the fine line that separates civilization from the bubbling up of this fury and chaos. Add the post-traumatic stress of 9/11 and you get an amazing story of society and humanity. As Rushdie writes, "But our nature is our nature and uncertainty is at the heart of what we are, uncertainty per se, in and of itself, the sense that nothing is written in stone, everything crumbles. As Marx was probably still saying out there in the junkyard of ideas, . . . all that is solid melts into air. In a public climate of such daily-trumpeted assurance, where did our fears go to hide? On what did they feed? On ourselves, perhaps . . . "

• Beautifully woven, complex and subtle, it captures an essence of NYC after 9/11

  jabern2005-04-29

  Beautifully woven, complex and subtle, this film captures an essence of NYC after 9/11. A great script, some stunning photography, an excellent score that helps tie it all together, and a great ensemble cast make this small film seem quite large. The emotions that bubble under the surface, only sometimes breaking through, give this film its strength and its power. Different stories of different people all struggling with day to day life sharing the common experience of being New Yorkers post 9/11. The references to what happened are almost all unspoken, evoked through the images displayed or the background sounds, yet there is no doubt that what happened is a force in the lives of all of these people. Intelligent film-making at its best.

• Reacting to a tragedy

  jotix1002006-06-30

  The first hint about how the tragedy of 9/11 is affecting the different characters one encounters in the film appears early on when we meet Sandie, and his analyst, who are starting therapy session. Dr. Trabulous, who has come to Sandie's office, asks him about some people that might have been some of the victims of the tragedy. Samie answers he didn't really know them since he worked on a different floor. It appears Sandie is feeling guilt having survived. The other four vignettes deal with New Yorkers of different walks of life, who have been touched, in one way, or another, by the horrific attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. There is a sweet reunion when Judy Hillerman, a woman of a certain age meets Jerry, a former high school friend who has returned to Brooklyn, after many years of living away. Judy, who is married, lives a routine life catering to her retired husband. When Jerry appears, Judy comes alive because the connection with the long lost friend. Emme, the cake maker for the rich and famous, is not too happy. Her rival, Sarafah Polsky, is a successful woman who is doing exactly what Emme wants to do. Her married life leaves a lot to be desired; there is not much communication with her narcissist husband. At the end of the film Emme is staring blankly into the streets below her as the bells toll in remembrance of the death. It's only hinted that Emme is also grieving. Avi and Satish, the security guards, are seen following a visiting dignitary, who could be Indian, or Pakistani. Their conversation, which is dubbed, go from the banal, to the way they perceive the society in which they are living now. The fifth story deals with a couple whose young son has turned into a monster that is hard to control. No matter what Allyson and David do to help their young boy seems to work. It's up to one of the teachers in the child's school to tell them what their son has turned out to be. As the film ends we watch the empty room formerly occupied by the boy. Danny Leiner, whose previous work we had enjoyed, shows he is a director to be reckoned with. Working with screen writer Sam Catlin, these stories flow seamlessly making a point about loss, tragedy and vulnerability in the study of the characters. The cinematography by Harlan Bosmajian has the right kind of darkness to accompany what is seen on the screen. A great ensemble cast was put together. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jim Gaffigan, Tony Shaloub, Olympia Dukakis, Dick Latessa, Sherat Saxena, Naseeruddin Shah, Judy Greer, Will Arnett, and the rest do an excellent job in conveying Mr. Leiner's ideas. It's a shame this film has not found a bigger audience judging by the screening we attended at the Angelika, the other day. Mr. Leiner deserves better.

• done just right

  bstolove2005-04-29

  Saw this at the Tribeca Film Festival and didn't know what to expect. After all I had heard that it was a " 9-11 comedy". Nonetheless, I was REALLY impressed with how the entire movie was done. The writing and the performances were both top notch. I HIGHLY recommend this movie. It is based around 9-11 but side steps going for the jugular on the subject. All the actors were great, especially Maggie Gylenahaal and Tony Shaloub. Gim Gaffigan is also amazing. He attended the screening and jokingly told us that he was lucky Phillip Seymour Hoffman turned down his role. Too true. The movie showed just the right amount of sensitivity. Check it out.