I have been a movie-watching maniac the last several weeks. I have always loved sitting in the darkened theater, the decadence of the buttered popcorn, usually served in a tub big enough to swim in and even jockeying for the armrest with the person next to me.

I caught the weekend box-office winner, Click, on Saturday, as well as the smaller film, The Great New Wonderful, on Friday.

I will be surprised if Click continues its box-office dominance. My guess is that it will fade into obscurity now. The concept is familiar — Adam Sandler is an overworked architect just looking for a break in balancing his career aspirations and his family. He gets that break from Morty (played with great wackiness by Christopher Walken), a "Way Beyond" salesman from Bed, Bath and Beyond, who gifts him a truly universal remote that can control his life. And hilarity ensues.

Only it really never did. And when the movie attempted to turn to touching, when the remote begins to self-program and Sandler’s character begins to realize the damage the device is doing, I know my heartstrings were supposed to be pulled, but they weren’t.

It was a shame, because Sandler has shown some truly wonderful dramatic teeth in such films as Spanglish, but here he seemed caught between the silliness of films like Billy Madison and the heart of Spanglish or even The Wedding Singer.

By contrast, the smaller film, The Great New Wonderful, was truly wonderful. The moments of humor here in this surprisingly quiet film by the director of (of all things) Dude, Where’s My Car, Danny Leiner.

The film follows New Yorkers in the year after 9/11, only the presence of the attacks is somewhat muted until the end of the film. Tony Shalhoub plays a therapist talking to the affable Jim Gaffigan, who works in an office where a tragedy took place; Maggie Gyllenhaal is Emme, a cake designer whose business of creating sugary, beautiful, transitory and overpriced confections provides the movie’s name; Judy Greer and Tom McCarthy (director of the equally wonerful The Station Agent) are a couple struggling with their very odd young son, who tends to wear a cape and cowboy boots through the whole movie and might be just a little bit evil; Olympia Dukakis is a married woman whose life has become a monotonous routine until she encounters an old friend from high school; and Naseeruddin Shah and Sharat Saxena are security guards with different approaches to life. Shah’s Avi embraces pop culture, while Saxena’s Satish disdains it.

There is no mention of Bush or politics and the moments where Sept. 11, 2001, muscles into the picture are subtle — a trapped moment on an elevator, repressed rage unleashed, the presence of an inhaler.

If you have the opportunity to see one or the other, I highly recommend The Great New Wonderful, which is playing in Cambridge. It’s a bit of a drive, but worth it, and will make you long for the presence of more high-quality quiet films in the area.

Plus, the soundtrack is wonderful, with tunes by Neil Finn and The Wrens.