Witty_Kibitzer Review of The Great New Wonderful

The Great New Wonderful (2005)

Interesting ideas, not so interesting film.

[4/10 · 18 March 2008]

This film was seemingly advertised as a romantic comedy, which doesn't usually peak my interest, yet thankfully had little to do with comedy or romance. I found the title ironic as the overall tone of this film is bleak and full of loss, the characters pitiful and depressed. As a series of glimpses into the character's lives, this movie excelled in its portrayal of longing for something unknown. Each character has a seemingly decent, if not "wonderful", life and yet when the film digs deeper you notice all the things that are missing and the voids that are left behind. No character realizes what they are doing without or how to remedy their situation, as each struggles in their own unique way. I felt a bit disturbed by this film. It seemed to me that the only characters that ended up in a better place in their lives made awful decisions to get to that place. They did things that I could never do, no matter the justification. My main focus was a young couple with an elementary school aged son, who find themselves unable to cope with his behavioral problems. Theirs was the most heart-wrenching story, I felt, and yet they seemed the most contented in the end. In order to reach that end, however, they sent their child away and seemingly started from scratch with their relationship to each other. This disgusted me, but most likely it was because this was an affront to my highest held beliefs. I could never betray my child that way, no matter how difficult he/she became. I felt that they didn't deserve the happiness they derived as a result of their decision. All in all, I didn't really enjoy this movie and wouldn't recommend it. I am, as always after watching a film, glad to have watched it and I felt that it conveyed several important and often overlooked messages: As humans we will always have intrinsic values that we may not even understand ourselves. We often value quality of life over quantity without realizing it. We will often pursue goals and attitudes in our lives that put higher values on monetary and material goods, rather than the unseen goals and attitudes that would bring us our true happiness. In this way, we hurt ourselves.