The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Directed by: Ben Stiller
Written by: Steve Conrad, based on the short story by James Thurber
Starring: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, Adrian Martinez, Sean Penn, Shirley MacLaine, Patton Oswalt, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
Adventure/Comedy/Drama/Fantasy - 114 min
Written by: Steve Conrad, based on the short story by James Thurber
Starring: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, Adrian Martinez, Sean Penn, Shirley MacLaine, Patton Oswalt, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
Adventure/Comedy/Drama/Fantasy - 114 min
All of us daydream and/or fantasize about being the ‘super’ us. Instead of typing away at our desk jobs, we are intrepid explorers, top tier athletes, and of course devastatingly handsome and desired by multitudes of the opposite sex. These are merely brief interludes though, we snap back to reality almost as quickly as we leave it. Walter Mitty does not come back so quickly however. Either his daily grind is that much worse than ours that he must escape from it for longer chunks of time or his imagination is so strong it overpowers his attachment to reality. For once poor Walter wades into the fantasy world, it usually takes an embarrassing moment in the real world to shock him back.
There are a lot of embarrassing moments too. Walter (Ben Stiller) seems lucky if he can make it a good 10 minutes without an ‘episode’. Naturally, the people who usually catch him in his dream state are his new, awful boss at Life magazine just looking for excuses to lay people off (Parks & Recreation’s Adam Scott) or Cheryl (Kristen Wiig), the office girl he has a crush on. Most of his fantasies either concern Cheryl and the inventive ways he would save her life during perilous situations or of snappy comebacks and revenge fantasies against his boss.
Walter Mitty is not a sad sack, woe is me drama though; it is a feel good ‘get out there and do something’ adventure film. Life magazine is closing and the last cover is supposed to be a whopper. Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn) is a master photographer and takes some of the world’s most daring photos, usually because he puts himself in mortal danger to get them. Unfortunately, the negative that is to become the final cover photo is missing. The blame will fall on Walter; therefore, he boldly goes where he has only dreamed about…out there.
A spur of the moment decision leads to a drunken helicopter pilot, a fight with a shark, a fishing trawler, an erupting volcano, cut throat warlords, and a chest full of newfound self-confidence. These decisions to keep pressing on are usually filmed in slow motion with a soaring Arcade Fire-like anthem blaring in the background to make sure you get the point; Walter is exiting his comfort zone.
There are some mighty impressive visual effects and gorgeous cinematography at work following Walter’s exploits. The best shot is Walter skateboarding an S-curved Icelandic road. The back story on that is flimsy as can be, Walter spent his boyhood as a skateboard enthusiast before he morphed into an introverted nobody, but it’s still a memorable scene. Ben Stiller also shouldered directing duties for the film and it reminds us he is also as capable behind the camera as he is in front of it.
Walter Mitty’s drawback though is that it is adventure-lite. The film places so much emphasis on Walter’s gutsy decisions to keep pressing forward that it forgets to come back down to Earth and give the audience something to feel. Patton Oswalt pops up, voice only, as a comedic companion every now and again and works as a sort of sounding board to Walter’s metamorphosis. When we first meet Oswalt, a dating website help desk worker, he is as perplexed as the audience at how little Walter has done with his life. He has not been anywhere and he has not accomplished anything.
As Walter collects more adventures under his belt, the help desk operator becomes more and more excited and congratulatory of Walter. That is what Stiller wants as well. He wants you to congratulate Walter and then make you feel like you can leave the theater and do something impulsive and wacky as well to show off on your Facebook wall. This is the motivation behind most feel good films; you are supposed to feel so good at the end credits that you tell all your friends what a great time you had at the movies. If Walter Mitty had been a bit more forceful or deeper, then this just may be a true statement.
There are a lot of embarrassing moments too. Walter (Ben Stiller) seems lucky if he can make it a good 10 minutes without an ‘episode’. Naturally, the people who usually catch him in his dream state are his new, awful boss at Life magazine just looking for excuses to lay people off (Parks & Recreation’s Adam Scott) or Cheryl (Kristen Wiig), the office girl he has a crush on. Most of his fantasies either concern Cheryl and the inventive ways he would save her life during perilous situations or of snappy comebacks and revenge fantasies against his boss.
Walter Mitty is not a sad sack, woe is me drama though; it is a feel good ‘get out there and do something’ adventure film. Life magazine is closing and the last cover is supposed to be a whopper. Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn) is a master photographer and takes some of the world’s most daring photos, usually because he puts himself in mortal danger to get them. Unfortunately, the negative that is to become the final cover photo is missing. The blame will fall on Walter; therefore, he boldly goes where he has only dreamed about…out there.
A spur of the moment decision leads to a drunken helicopter pilot, a fight with a shark, a fishing trawler, an erupting volcano, cut throat warlords, and a chest full of newfound self-confidence. These decisions to keep pressing on are usually filmed in slow motion with a soaring Arcade Fire-like anthem blaring in the background to make sure you get the point; Walter is exiting his comfort zone.
There are some mighty impressive visual effects and gorgeous cinematography at work following Walter’s exploits. The best shot is Walter skateboarding an S-curved Icelandic road. The back story on that is flimsy as can be, Walter spent his boyhood as a skateboard enthusiast before he morphed into an introverted nobody, but it’s still a memorable scene. Ben Stiller also shouldered directing duties for the film and it reminds us he is also as capable behind the camera as he is in front of it.
Walter Mitty’s drawback though is that it is adventure-lite. The film places so much emphasis on Walter’s gutsy decisions to keep pressing forward that it forgets to come back down to Earth and give the audience something to feel. Patton Oswalt pops up, voice only, as a comedic companion every now and again and works as a sort of sounding board to Walter’s metamorphosis. When we first meet Oswalt, a dating website help desk worker, he is as perplexed as the audience at how little Walter has done with his life. He has not been anywhere and he has not accomplished anything.
As Walter collects more adventures under his belt, the help desk operator becomes more and more excited and congratulatory of Walter. That is what Stiller wants as well. He wants you to congratulate Walter and then make you feel like you can leave the theater and do something impulsive and wacky as well to show off on your Facebook wall. This is the motivation behind most feel good films; you are supposed to feel so good at the end credits that you tell all your friends what a great time you had at the movies. If Walter Mitty had been a bit more forceful or deeper, then this just may be a true statement.
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