The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Cast of Characters:

Walter Mitty - Ben Stiller

Cheryl Melhoff - Kristen Wiig

Edna Mitty - Shirley MacLaine

Ted Hendricks - Adam Scott

Odessa Mitty - Kathryn Hahn

Sean O'Connell - Sean Penn

Director - Ben Stiller

Screenplay - Steve Conrad

Based on the short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber

Rated PG for some crude comments, language and action violence

      Ben Stiller, Academy Award nominee Kristen Wiig and Academy Award winners Shirley MacLaine and Sean Penn star in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Ben, now you can finally ask him why he went full retard in I Am Sam.

      Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is a mild-mannered negative analyst for Life Magazine that always appears to be stuck in a "zoned out" daydream, particularly one involving his coworker crush Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig). When Life decides to stop publishing magazines for print and focus on an online publication led by Ted Hendricks (Adam Scott), Walter is given the task of prepping the cover photo for the final magazine by the legendary photographer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn). The problem is Walter can't find the negative - negative 25, Sean's "Quintessence of Life".

      With the deadline approaching and being harassed and humiliated by his boss Hendricks, Mitty takes it upon himself to travel abroad in order to find that mysterious negative 25.

      The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was actually in development for nearly two decades. Sam Goldwyn, Jr. (whose father produced the original starring Danny Kaye in 1947) originally wanted Jim Carrey for the lead role and Disney was set to purchase the remake rights. After years and years in development hell, Stiller was finally picked for both lead actor and director of the film and we finally have what we see right now. After all those years of trying to get this movie pushed into being remade and after finally seeing the very effective marketing trailers, it's unfortunate how underwhelming the film was at times. While there are some impressive visual sequences and genuinely funny moments, the film overall felt lacking. The problem may be that Stiller's direction often times comes off as a little too self-indulgent, leaving very little room for any development for the supporting work, in particular the wonderful Kristen Wiig. Mitty is a likeable enough character, enough to where you wouldn't hate seeing him finally get the girl at the end, yet we don't get as much from Wiig as we should to where we'd be rooting for them to meet up at the end. In fact, at times I felt her talents was somewhat wasted. I get it. It's called The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, not The Secret Life of Walter Mitty's Supporting Cast, but if one of the subplots is Walter trying to pursue this girl - and, in a way, it technically is the main driving point of the film - you need to bring something out of both characters to where we're happy to see them end up together. Wiig's a likeable screen presence, but here she came off bland. Even with Stiller's lead as Walter Mitty, we're barely introduced to the meek and mild-mannered Mitty before we plunge head first into one of his "Mitty the hero" daydreams. Had we have gotten to know the normal Mitty a bit more beforehand, it would've made those daydreams something more than just being visually stylish and impressive - it would've gotten us to feel for Mitty much more. Plus, despite Sean Penn delivering a solid and funny extended cameo, there's so much excitement over this missing photo, but when we finally see just what exactly the photo is, it's kinda corny and - well, see my point about Stiller's self-indulgence.

      I don't want it to seem like I'm hating on the movie. It's not bad, but it's not what I was hoping it to be. Stiller has proven himself to be a solid director before with the cult comedy classics such as Reality Bites, The Cable Guy and the hilarious Tropic Thunder. Here, he's trying to bite off more than he can chew. There's a lot of style and some solid performances, but very little substance, marking this one of 2013's disappointments for me. I give The Secret Life of Walter Mitty a C (★★½).