Great New Wonderful

Bittersweet, touching, and quite funny at times.

This film will always have a place in my mind because it is the first film I ever saw at the Gene Siskel Film Center. The center is an amazing place to watch cinema and the programs they run are addictive.

The thing that makes this movie great is the way it takes a look at how 9/11 affected Americans after 9/11. There is no direct reference to 9/11. Yet through Tony Shalhoub's wonderfully subtle comic performance and then Jim Gaffigan's performance, you see those two characters interact in way that is different than it would have been before 9/11. You see a family struggling to raise a child after 9/11. Maggie Gyllenhaal shows why she is becoming the go-to actress for independent film. Her range and skill and beauty are exquisite. But it's in a way that no studio flick could ever use properly.

Stephen Colbert's appearance is damn good as it should be. His few lines and character moves the film forward, which is the key to the entire film. There isn't really a story but the characters advance the story so it becomes a model for what people might be feeling nowadays after 9/11.

6/10