The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) - Stiller's sweet, visually splendid Christmas present

♥♥♥♥

 

A carefully designed, neat poster for Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

 

Walter Mitty is a negative asset manager with LIFE magazine. He is a daydreamer, who, due to the magazine's closing, goes out on an adventure to locate a lost photograph.

In a way, Walter Mitty, co-produced, directed by and starring Ben Stiller (Zoolander (2001)), is an easy target to make fun of, because it could resemble a midlife crisis project for the star: SPOILER In it, among other things, he swims with a shark, survives a volcano eruption and climbs a mountain, - and one of the supporting characters at one point remarks that he is "as if Indiana Jones decided to join The Strokes!" But discarding the film on this basis would be a shame, because it is also a very pure-hearted project with an underlying humanism and joy to it, which, in any crisis period, is welcome.

The film at one point directly references Into the Wild (2007), - a film with a similar theme of self-discovery through adventure-seeking, but one that packs a major emotional punch, which Walter Mitty never gets near. It has lots of good music (including its score by Theodore Shapiro (Spy (2015))), which helps mask that the film's depth is very surface-bound. Visually, Walter Mitty is impressively sumptuous and skillfully designed, with cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh (Blackhat (2015)).

Stiller is good as the title character, in particular in his scenes with Kristen Wiig (Nasty Baby (2015)), which are incredibly sweet. Adam Scott (Krampus (2015)) makes a very credible a-hole, and Sean Penn (Fair Game (2010)) seems a bit involuntarily comedic as a photographer/philosopher.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is written by Steve Conrad (The Pursuit of Happiness (2006)), based on James Thurber's (The Male Animal (1939, play)) same-titled 1939 short story, which was first adapted in 1947. It is a very sweet and uplifting film.

 

Related reviews:

 

Ben Stiller: While We're Young (2014) - Baumbach offers another observant, clever downer (actor)

Tower Heist (2011) - Ratner's so-so financial crisis comedy (actor)

I'm Still Here (2010) or, Joaquin Phoenix's Bad Joke (unsuspecting subject) 

Greenberg (2010) - Baumbach's uniquely downbeat LA-romance depressant (actor)

Blades of Glory (2007) - Copycat comedy about ice figure skating (producer)

The Cable Guy (1996) - Stiller's dark comedy is a riot

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 90 mil. $

Box office: 188.5 mil. $

= Flop

[The Secret Life of Walter Mitty premiered October 5 (New York Film Festival) and runs 114 minutes. The film had been in development ever since 1994, when producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. had the idea to make another adaptation, following his producer father's 1947 film. Jim Carrey was set to star for years, and other filmmakers involved include, but are not limited to, Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, Richard LaGravanese, Chuck Russell, Owen Wilson, Scarlett Johansson, Sacha Baron Cohen and Gore Verbinski. Stiller was finally announced as director-star in 2011. Filming took place in Iceland, Greenland, British Columbia, Canada, California and New York, including in the Time-Life Building, in and around May 2012. The film opened #7 to a 12.7 mil. $ first weekend in 2,909 theaters in North America, where it grossed 58.2 mil. $ (30.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 11.9 mil. $ (6.3 %) and Russia with 11.3 mil. $ (6 %). Had American audiences welcomed the film more enthusiastically, (their market share is unusually low for a homegrown, big movie), the film might have made a profit. It appeared on National Board of Review's top 10 list of the year and made an additional 15 mil. $ on DVDs and Blu-ray, which, if added to the gross, still doesn't change the film's flop status. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is rotten at 51 % with a 6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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