'The Great New Wonderful' is sometimes unsettlingly funny

The year-after-9/11 "The Great New Wonderful" is not exactly a great comedy-drama but certainly a film with its share of wonderful moments.

The story intently follows a parade of New York characters in their everyday lives 12 months after the emotional upheaval of the city's most tragic day. The conceit is that, whether the characters realize it or not, the tragedy still boils in their inner psyches.

First Independent Pictures 'The Great New Wonderful' B- The verdict: A sometimes successful attempt to take the mental temperature of the New York psyche a year after 9/11. Director: Danny Leiner Starring: Tony Shalhoub, Edie Falco, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Olympia Dukakis, Tom McCarthy Run time: 88 minutes Release date: June 23, 2006 Rating: R for language and some sexuality. On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'The Great New Wonderful'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Edie Falco play rival, top-line cake makers (this year's race is winning the contract for a spoiled-rich teen girl's birthday party). Olympia Dukakis plays an elderly wife bored with the grinding routine of life at home with her static husband. Other stories involve parents dealing with their destructive, even dangerous child, and one Twin Towers survivor (Jim Gaffigan) who is in therapy for his suspected inner rage. In another biting storyline, TV's Stephen Colbert has a small part as a school principal.

"New Wonderful" is sometimes unsettlingly funny (even after five years it seems cruel to find humor in the wake of horrific tragedy) and some of the lines are emotionally staggering. For instance, when a stalled elevator finally works, its doors at long last opening for Gaffigan to exit, one fellow passenger, unaware of the character's close call with 9/11, cheerily calls out, "You're lucky to get out of here alive."

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.