THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (5)

Pre-screening event at Studio Movie Grill – City Center in Houston. The movie opens on CHRISTMAS DAY.

Honestly, my blog’s comeback deserves a better movie. Read on below.

PRE-TRIP

A really gorgeous poster

I will say this: I love trailers that play the “show, don’t tell” card with music that accompanies the images. Set to the song "Dirty Paws" by Of Monsters and Men, here is a beautiful trailer about a man who daydreams to live a life better than the one he’s trapped in.

For the past decades, remaking WALTER MITTY has been on many minds, including MARK WATERS, RON HOWARD and STEVEN SPIELBERG, with OWEN WILSON, SACHA BARON COHEN and JIM CARREY set to star as the titular character as the project gets passed through hands.

Good to see things have finally settled down, with funnyman BEN STILLER sitting at the helm and being WALTER MITTY. Yes, I’m very surprised. Yet, what I see so far is great – a movie with a powerful message and looks beautiful in communicating it. Worthy cinematic journey alert!

9 out of 10.

POST-TRIP

BEN STILLER (Walter Mitty) and SEAN PENN (Sean O' Connell)

Tsk tsk...

After such a promising beginning – a showcase of impressive camera-work from STUART DRYBURGH (NO RESERVATIONS), warm musical score by THEODORE SHAPIRO (TROPIC THUNDER) and a fantastic fantasy sequence – WALTER MITTY begins to collapse.

And collapse is what our character, nicely played by BEN STILLER in a subdued performance, is experiencing as his workplace – LIFE Magazine – is in transition from print to online. Knowing this, famed photographer Sean O’ Connell (SEAN PENN in a memorable role that lasts minutes) sends 25 negatives that will make the magazine ends with a bang. One problem though, the 25th negative is missing. A quest is given to Walter and this too could be a chance for him to woo Cheryl Melhoff (KRISTEN WIIG in a role so in-the-background that without her the movie is still fine).

BEN STILLER (Walter Mitty) and KRISTEN WIIG (Cheryl Melhoff
- or the invisible love interest)

Had most of the quest happened in Walter’s daydreams and then raised the question “will he finally be able to accomplish his goals”, I will accept the title THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY. What we have here is THIS IS WHAT I THINK IS AN UPLIFTING AND INSPIRING MONTAGE FOR YOU THROUGH THE EYES OF WALTER MITTY.

Only him is happy

Blame it on the disconnected and tedious script from STEVE CONRAD, who (strangely enough) wrote the touching and tear-jerking THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS. Uplifting viewers should have been right up his alley but he seems lost here, perhaps because of deviating so far from the source material and as a result its true meaning. The movie is conflict-free, moving at a pace that it finds comfortable, saying the things it finds suitable and showing the things it finds fine. As for the audience, the movie asks “what audience?”. It doesn’t care about the clichés regarding “nerdy guy into a cool man” it throws at you or the sentimental moments with product placement that it thinks mean something. Shame how the execution is purely self-indulgent for a material that holds such a universal message about living life the right way. How strange when a movie about a secret life does not refer to that secret life for the majority of its runtime? At least the work to integrate a modern setting into the story is commendable.

A fantasy sequence that works

However, if you look the movie as separate segments – like each negative on a reel – WALTER MITTY... works (!) It message comes through clear as day and loud as thunder, you will feel hopeful and fulfilled. As one movie, the movie is like a car with three wheels. Now there’s nothing hopeful and fulfilling about that, unless you’re a tow truck driver.

Dat beard

That’s not to say the movie has no redeeming values. ADAM SCOTT is really fun and convincingly unlikable as the evil manager with a goofy beard. From a technical standpoint, it’s not crazy to say WALTER MITTY may earn Golden Globes or Oscars for Cinematography, Music or Visual Effects. The fantasy sequences are really well-realized. The photography, mostly top-down shots and wide angles, is breathtaking. Finally, a score that has presence and well-placed rock songs. As a visual storyteller, BEN STILLER knows what he’s doing, I guess.

One of the many beautiful frames

Nevertheless, the lumps are just too big to ignore. Perhaps audiences will love WALTER MITTY because of its message, its humor when it works, its pokes at other movies (THE MATRIX and BENJAMIN BUTTON) and its “holiday-hopeful effect”, but upon inspection there is a big, big problem. For a movie about a man’s secret (is it really though?), WALTER MITTY just can’t hide the fact that he’s lost and just straight-up disappointing.

5 out of 10.

Where is this movie?

MOMENTS THAT LINGER

• Walter’s first daydream at the train station.
• Space Oddity cover by KRISTEN WIIG
• A continuous shot of Walter traveling from New York to Greenland.