The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

I saw this movie recently, and thought it was amazing.

I really enjoyed accompanying Mitty on his wonderful journey.

I realize this is a remake, and since I had not seen the original, my judgment of Ben Stiller's film was in no way a comparison to the first version.

Some of the magic that I experienced with Forrest Gump were evident in this one, and Ben Stiller did a remarkable job directing and acting.

What did you all think of it?

__________________
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa

I've been meaning to see this one. Visually, it looks incredible, and Ben Stiller has always been a fairly overlooked filmmaker in my books.

Wasn't as big a fan as you were mojo but still thought it was a nice film. Here was my review -











Plot - Walter Mitty (Stiller) is employed by Life magazine as a negative asset manager, putting him in charge of their photographic output. A real day-dreamer, Walter can constantly be found escaping the doldrums of his real life by disappearing into fantasy worlds that he concocts in his imagination; worlds where he is more heroic, more action-orientated and more confident that he ever is in reality, and where a frequent element of these fantasies is his co-worker at Life, Cheryl Melhoff (Wiig). Bad news comes to Walter, Cheryl and their fellow employees when Life is taken over and it is decided that the magazine will be wound up and become an internet only product. For the last ever issue, a photograph taken by famed photojournalist Sean O'Connell (Penn) is chosen to grace the cover, a photograph that according to O'Connell captures “quintessence of life.” One slight problem - negative 25, this special image, is nowhere to be found. Using the other photos as clues, Walter heads out into the real world in an attempt to track down the missing negative. Along the way he indulges in adventures that are just as grand, and indeed even grander than those in his imagination.

I had been greatly looking forward to this film. I thought the trailer was terrific and all the reports I had been hearing about it made it sound like something potentially special; hell Empire magazine was invoking the likes of The Apartment, It's a Wonderful Life and Life of Pi after seeing a preview of 15 minutes of footage. I was ready for something great. Well the good news is that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a very nice little film. The bad news however is that, well, it's a very nice little film....but not much else. It certainly feels like a film that is aiming to be something special and life-affirming; aiming for the sweetness and sentimentality of a Forrest Gump or a Frank Capra movie without slipping into schmaltz. However I just felt it all seemed a little bit sterile and superficial, leaving me a touch uninvolved with its narrative and title character.

The film is a very loose adaptation of the 1939 short story by James Thurber. By making the film in this day and age it gives the filmmakers the chance to update the story to include some contemporary issues such as the recession, downsizing and redundancies at large companies, and how the digital revolution is making more and more print media obsolete. Those issues alongside the film's attempts at some musings on life means that there is the potential for some interesting topics to be covered, and I did appreciate the film's central declaration about not being afraid to take chances and risks and about living for the moment. It's just that I rarely found that the film was able to address these issues with any great depth. The whole thing just came across as a bit too slick and glossy for its own good. A feeling certainly not helped by the blatant product placement slapped across the whole film. In addition to the obvious involvement of Life magazine the film frequently feels like an extended ad for eHarmony. Every 10 to 15 minutes the film seems to take a break and indulge in an eHarmony commercial, taking me out of the film. I think the main culprit in regards to the lack of depth is certainly to be found in its clumsy script. In terms of both the story and its characters there are a lot of inconsistencies and unexplained issues. This is especially true of Walter himself. He is apparently a very cautious and retiring fellow and yet it doesn't feel that he really needs all that much motivation to head out onto this grand, globe-spanning adventure. And while he is apparently a bit of a frugal individual he is fairly quick to splash the cash to fund those adventures. There are also some things which just seem a little illogical and improbable which at times makes you question if what you're watching is indeed real or not. While another problem in the script is that its message about life really does try to pummel you into submission. It is constantly spelling it out for you just in case you somehow managed to miss it the previous 8 times.

The main attribute of Mitty is certainly to be found in just how lovely it looks. Filmed across the astonishing landscape of Iceland in some of the most visually dynamic of environments, Iceland both 'plays' itself in the film whilst also standing in for Greenland, Afghanistan and the Himalayas. It provides a wondrous, almost otherworldly array of immense mountains, vast oceans, steep valleys, glaciers, volcanoes and waterfalls. As well as providing some astounding images Iceland also proves to be a smart choice to fit the story. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty concerns itself with a man who finds more excitement in the world he creates in his head than in real life. So it feels very fitting that if anywhere on Earth was going to convince Walter that the real world can be just as intoxicating as his imagination then it would be Iceland. Stiller utilises these locales to good effect, coming up with some fine examples of framing and compositions. And these images that he creates are handsomely captured by the truly gorgeous cinematography of Stuart Dryburgh. An Oscar nomination for his work is surely nothing but a formality.

Film Trivia - A new, updated version of the film had actually been under consideration for close on 20 years, with various A-listers both in front of and behind the camera circling the project. Back in 1994 producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr., whose father had produced the original Danny Kaye version in 1947, had the idea of a remake with Jim Carrey in mind to take on the title role. The production moved on positively for a few years and in 1997 a first draft was in place and Ron Howard was in negotiations to direct. Howard was also set to produce the film alongside Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment. Howard, Grazer and Imagine Entertainent eventually left the project however in favour of making Edtv. The project bounced around for a few years with numerous rewrites and a lawsuit holding it up before Steven Spielberg signed on to direct in 2003, with Carrey still the preferred choice for the starring role. The following year however Spielberg dropped out. Life was again breathed back into the project in 2005 when Mark Waters was hired to direct. Carrey however had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts and was quickly replaced by Owen Wilson. Wilson himself would then drop out and be replaced by Mike Myers in 2007. Things then went quiet until 2010 when Sacha Baron Cohen accepted the role of Walter and Gore Verbinski agreed to sit in the director's chair. Once again nothing came of it, until finally in 2011 Ben Stiller became attached both as actor and director.

Also very visually impressive are the film's special effects. Bringing Walter's daydreams to life the CGI is tasked with covering a large breadth of ventures, from superheroic action to a daring rescue of a little dog from a burning building. And Stiller again does an impressive job when it comes to handling the special effects and the action sequences; something we had never really seen was in his wheelhouse up until now. He also has a lot of fun when it comes to clever and creative uses for text throughout the film. There were times however where I just got the feeling that instead of concentrating purely on this film, it came across a little like a calling card for his directing abilities, a chance for him to show off with as many little tricks as possible to try and get himself on the directing A-list. All of the daydreams are a lot of fun, and greatly help the film through a rather slow opening act. The highlight of these sequences would certainly have to be a brief little diversion where Walter fantasises a situation that plays off of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. That moments got a big laugh from both myself and pretty much everyone in the audience. While it is a very funny moment it does however flag up what I saw as one of the film's problems; its uneven tone. The film sets out its stall to be this powerful, life-affirming movie in the vein of Life of Pi. This doesn't sit all that comfortably alongside Stiller's predilection to return to the arena of broad humour where he is most comfortable. Moments such as the Benjamin Button sequence, Walter's encounter with a drunken pilot and battling a shark with a briefcase may provide laughs but I felt that it came across as out of place and just hurt the flow of the film, with the addition of a slight romantic comedy angle further heightening this.

While the film may mark a more ambitious stretch for Stiller in terms of his directing duties, when it comes to his performance he is sticking very much in his comfort zone. Throughout his career Stiller has had pretty much just two modes in terms of his acting. There's the obnoxious douchebag that we've seen in the likes of Dodgeball and Mystery Men. And then there's the rather neurotic sad-sack that we've seen in, well pretty much everything else! Most notably however in Meet the Parents, Night at the Museum, Along Came Polly etc. In the case of Walter Mitty we are firmly in the camp of the latter. What Stiller lacks in range however I've always found he made up for in terms of likeability. I know he's not everyone's cup of tea but I've always enjoyed his films and I thought he gave Walter a rather endearing and awkward charm. Even if I struggled to find it, he certainly seems to have made the film with all his heart. With the film predominantly following Walter on his travels and adventures very few other actors get much of a look-in, however Kristen Wiig is able to create an adorable and beguiling character all the same despite the limitations imposed upon her. It's just a shame that her considerable talents were not further utilised; something that would also have helped to enhance the fairly flimsy romance. The rest of the cast also do a nice job, including Shirley MacLaine's as his mother, Kathryn Hahn as his kooky sister and small roles for Patton Oswalt and Sean Penn.

One thing I will say about the film is that I think it makes for a very good Christmas film. It's a nice, sweet little film that has its heart in the right place and a little splash of fantasy. I'm sure that whole families will be able to take a trip to the cinema this festive season, and every member of the family will be able to enjoy the film on one level or another, whether it be for its gorgeous looks, the humour or its attempts at profundity. And for people who are able to find the great depth in the film that I felt was lacking, they could very easily come away absolutely loving it. For them it may indeed prove to be the new Forrest Gump like some people are saying. Not for me though.

Conclusion - I feel I'm perhaps being a touch harsh on this film, a little bit of a Grinch if you will. It is a well acted and directed affair, and it looks spectacular thanks to some excellent cinematography. For all its stunning visuals however I just felt that the weak script struggled to match it, undermining a lot of the good on show. I would say that it's a pretty easy watch. It's not a film that I imagine I would actively search out to watch again all that often. However it's the type of film that I can see watching a number of times by stumbling across it on TV and just sticking with it. And I feel that I'll get plenty of opportunities for that because it's likely to become a staple of Christmas schedules and a bank holiday favourite for schedulers. Oh and something I forgot to mention, it's got quite a fun little soundtrack that is highlighted by the prominence given to David Bowie's Space Oddity.

__________________

Saw it the other night. Wasn't very impressed. Visually it was outstanding, but I was hoping for a lot more out of it. The movie had no substance to it. I mean he just did all the traveling for really no reason, I did not see him change or evolve as a person. Didn't really feel Kristen Wiig's character was necessary at all either. The romance sorta feel flat to me.

I kind of had high expectations when I first saw the trailer and there was whispers that it could be an awards contender and evoke Forrest Gump type emotion out of the film. But that did not happen with me at all. Maybe if the story was tweaked and Ben Stiller was not directing it, it could have. He had some of his comedy, along with comedic actors that kinda cheapened it. Adam Scott, for example, served his purpose but he is just a silly character. As for what he was after from Sean Penn, I could tell half way through the movie what it was going be.

It was ok, just fell flat emotionally for me. Had good intentions as a film just fell a little short of it's high ambitions.

I'd give it 2/5

__________________
I came here to do two things, drink some beer and kick some ass, looks like we are almost outta beer - Dazed and Confused

101 Favorite Movies (2019)