As a writer, going into something knowing you’re going to have to write about it and being presented with a pile of mediocre blandness is terrible. Things you love, easy to write about. Things you hate, easy to write about. Things you just don’t care about either way, not so easy to write about.
Going into the latest Cineworld secret screening, I knew I was facing the world premiere of a movie, and as a pop culture blogger, knew I would be writing about the film I was soon to be watching. Scanning through a list of future releases, I had my fingers crossed for American Hustle, but luck was not on my side and the title card revealed we were seeing The Secret Life of Walter Mitty a month early.
Based loosely on a 1947 original, the 2013 Walter Mitty stars Ben Stiller as a daydreaming magazine photo proofer, and Kristen Wiig as his love interest. The film also stars many other big names; Adam Scott, Patton Oswalt, Shirley MacLaine, and a person who, thoughout the whole film I thought bore a striking resemblance to Sean Penn (the credits revealed that this person was actually Sean Penn).
Walter Mitty himself is bland and boring, and readily admits to having never been or done anything noteworthy or mentionable. Walter regularly “zones out” and daydreams at inopportune moments throughout the day, filling his day with fantasies and awkward moments with colleagues.
Throughout the course of the film, Walter goes from a day-dreamer to an adventurer as he tries to track down a freelance photographer to find a lost negative needed for the front cover of the final issue of the magazine they work for. Unfortunately, I found the whole film to be a little lacking in plot, and instead found that it relied heavily on the special effects of Walter’s daydreams, and the visual spectacular of the places Walter finds himself during his travels.
I felt I cared little about the fate of the characters, and didn’t really buy into the reality that Walter would just up and leave for Greenland, given that his job is on the line. There was just so much about the film that I wanted to invest in, but couldn’t because the characters didn’t develop fully and the plot didn’t give me enough opportunity to get behind the film.
Walter Mitty is by no means terrible, and probably won’t appear in my list of the ten worst films I’ve seen this year (though the jury is still out on that one), but when you leave a film thinking “Well, it’s not what I wanted to see, but at least it’s out of the way” you can’t help but feel the mark has been missed somewhat by the film-makers.
Culture Shack 