Movie and DVD Guide

Find Movies and Tickets

Choose Your Movie

All movies
or
The Great New Wonderful (2006) The self-absorbed New Yorkers who inhabit The Great New Wonderful are an antsy lot in 2002: An aggressive entrepreneur (Maggie Gyllenhaal) schemes to crush a… R PT88M Comedy Drama Edie Falco Maggie Gyllenhaal Jim Gaffigan Olympia Dukakis Tony Shalhoub First Independent Pictures
Movie Review

The Great New Wonderful (2006)

MPAA Rating: R
Reviewed by Lisa Schwarzbaum | Jul 05, 2006

Find theaters showing The Great New Wonderful in your area

'WONDERFUL' AND EMPTY Gyllenhaal (right) and Ari Graynor in Leiner's post-9/11 N.Y. story
Image credit: GREAT NEW WONDERFUL: Abbot Genser
'WONDERFUL' AND EMPTY Gyllenhaal (right) and Ari Graynor in Leiner's post-9/11 N.Y. story
EW's GRADE
B-

Details Limited Release: Jun 23, 2006; Rated: R; Length: 88 Minutes; Genres: Comedy, Drama; With: Edie Falco and Maggie Gyllenhaal; Distributor: First Independent Pictures

The self-absorbed New Yorkers who inhabit The Great New Wonderful are an antsy lot in 2002: An aggressive entrepreneur (Maggie Gyllenhaal) schemes to crush a competitor (Edie Falco), a placid company drone (Jim Gaffigan) roils with internal rage, an old woman (Olympia Dukakis) stalls in an ancient marital rut. Working from a stagy script by Sam Catlin, 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.

Originally posted Jul 05, 2006 Published in issue #886 Jul 14, 2006 Order article reprints