Tries way too hard to be clever and shrewd. Danny Leiner (Dude, Where’s My Car?, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) directed a script by Sam Catlin, and though both have their moments, they’re rarely the same moments.

| Sep 12, 2023

...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.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 29, 2009

Candid but hermetic NYC emotional aftershocks Of 9/11.

| Apr 29, 2007

No film that I've yet seen better captures the dismal mood that gripped the city in the wake of the [9/11] attacks...

| Oct 13, 2006

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.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 15, 2006

[The characters], like us, are looking for answers in a rare movie that boldly and thoughtfully asks the right questions.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 15, 2006

There are amusing moments sprinkled throughout the film, a few genuine laughs, and some nicely played dramatic scenes.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 12, 2006

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.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Aug 31, 2006

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.

| Original Score: A- | Aug 25, 2006

Leiner...wants to say something important, but his cinematic and narrative technique isn't up to the task.

| Original Score: C | Aug 24, 2006

Luminous, affecting, and at times humorous take on 9/11's aftermath.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 18, 2006

Yet -- and quite in spite of its plinky piano score -- The Great New Wonderful conjures occasional vividness, irrepressible pain or insight.

| Aug 18, 2006

There's an emotional truth to TGNW that can be denied or ignored, and it comes through if you give the movie a chance.

Full Review | Original Score: 86/100 | Aug 18, 2006

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 17, 2006

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.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 15, 2006

It's in the Magnolia/Short Cuts vein and, although it's not as good as those classics, the characters and their dilemmas are absorbing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 10, 2006

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 10, 2006

[Maggie] Gyllenhaal ... slips into character with greater ease than any other young American actress now in the movies.

| Jul 26, 2006

This is a film that never really says what's it's about, and may in fact not be about much of anything other than the zeitgeist of the era. Which, if you think about it, is plenty.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 23, 2006

There's a lot to admire about this movie, especially its lack of sentimental manipulation when dealing with the topic of 9/11.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 20, 2006