Find Movies & TV
Home
Live TV
On Demand
Sign In
The Great New Wonderful
2005 88m R
Drama
,
Comedy
,
Romance
5.5
73%
45%
48%
Add to Watchlist
The Great New Wonderful weaves five stories against the backdrop of an anxious and uncertain post-9-11 New York City.
More
Directed By
Danny Leiner
Written By
Sam Catlin
Studio
Sly Dog Films
Watch on these services
Free
Free
Free
+ 7 more
Cast of The Great New Wonderful
Olympia Dukakis
Judy Hillerman
Jim Gaffigan
Sandie
Judy Greer
Allison Burbage
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Emme Keeler
Tom McCarthy
Davie Burbage
Sharat Saxena
Satish
Naseeruddin Shah
Avinash aka "Avi"
Tony Shalhoub
Dr. Trabulous
Stephen Colbert
Principal Peersall
Dick Latessa
Jerry Binder
Will Arnett
Danny Keeler
Seth Gilliam
Clayton
Anita Gillette
Lainie
Julie Dretzin
Julie Driscoll
Edie Falco
Safarah Polsky
Jim Parsons
Justin
Rosemarie DeWitt
Debbie
The Great New Wonderful Reviews
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Jeff Strickler
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.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bob Longino
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.
Dallas Morning News
Chris Vognar
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.
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
...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.
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
The 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.
Chicago Sun-Times
Bill Stamets
Luminous, affecting, and at times humorous take on 9/11's aftermath.
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Why 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.
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
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.
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
This 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.
New York Times
A.O. Scott
Danny 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.
Slant Magazine
Nick Schager
Exhibits no trace of the random, goofy humor found in Leiner's first two directorial efforts.
Boxoffice Magazine
Tim Cogshell
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.
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
The 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.
Observer
Rex Reed
For an independent film, it is quite a rewarding big-time experience.
Village Voice
Ben Kenigsberg
The 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.
New York Magazine/Vulture
David Edelstein
If 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.
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
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.
Reel Film Reviews
David Nusair
...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.
WBAI Web Radio
Prairie Miller
Candid but hermetic NYC emotional aftershocks Of 9/11.
Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
Jeff Vice
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.
Watch The Great New Wonderful Videos
The Great New Wonderful
Take Plex everywhere
Watch free anytime, anywhere, on almost any device.
See the full list of supported devices
Home
Live TV
On Demand