The gourmet cake business is cut throat. Rising pastry chef Emme Keeler (Maggie Gyllenhaal) will do whatever it takes to unseat New York's Queen of cake Safarah Polsky (Edie Falco) -- consequences and good manners be damned. Emme's company, like the film, is called The Great New Wonderful. Wonder can be found in gold leaf butter cream frosting, but also in new beginnings, earned after difficult periods of loss and introspection. Danny Leiner's thoughtful ensemble drama follows the stories of five disparate sets of New Yorkers a year after the attacks of 9/11.
In addition to the ambitious Emme, writer Sam Catlin's first screenplay introduces Dr. Trabulous (Tony Shalhoub), an aggressive psychiatrist enlisted to help Sandie, an ordinary company man (Jim Gaffigan) who has witnessed an office tragedy; yuppie couple Allison and David Burbage (Judy Greer, Tom McCarthy) whose unappealing ten year old son has a propensity for hitting other people's children; Avi and Satish (Naseerudin Shah, Sharat Saxena), Indian immigrants who work together as security guards; and introspective Judy Berman (Olympia Dukakis), an elderly woman who is frustrated with the tired routine of her life.
As is often the case with ensemble dramas, some of the story lines in The Great New Wonderful are more compelling than others. Gyllenhaal's cake baking woes stands out. Because Gyllenhaal has proven to be such a versatile actress, the cool histrionics of Emme are oddly fascinating. Human kindness falls by the wayside when obstacles appear in her path. The conversations between the immigrant security guards are less effective; Avi's casual banter and observations about New York City--including the amount of Chinese restaurants and the appeal of women's asses--are played for easy laughs. Later, his moment of confession feels forced and overwritten. Judy Greer, another young and interesting actress, seems miscast in the role of an overburdened wife and mother. Given the small amount of screen time, she is asked to make far too many appearances in scanty cotton underwear. Olympia Dukakis gives a fine performance, but far away in her Coney Island apartment, her lonely character seems especially disconnected from the rest of the film.
Except for one fraught elevator ride jammed full of Leiner's distraught sampling of humanity, the revolving stories of The Great New Wonderful feel all too disjointed. Aside from the fact that they reside in the five boroughs of New York City, the narrative connection between them is tenuous. The connection to 9/11 is also subtle, perhaps too subtle. Leiner's portrait of a post 9/11 New York shows a fragile population, jumpy and sad. Yet no one in the film has taken a direct hit. This film about ordinary people, leading ordinary lives, seems unnecessarily and artificially burdened with the onus of tragedy.
