Genre:
drama
Director:
Ben Stiller
Rating:
**** (4 out of 5)
Since it was first published in The New Yorker magazine in 1939, James
Thurber’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
has been a staple in short fiction anthologies in America. The story about a
serial daydreamer is only a few paragraphs long (click here for full text), but it was enough to make one ponder about the
thin line between fantasy and reality, and how far a person can and will use
his imagination to escape a mundane life.
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| The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by Ben Stiller |
The short story was first
adapted for the big screen in 1947 starring Danny Kaye as a daydreaming
magazine editor. Over half a century later, actor/director Ben Stiller (Zoolander,
The Cable Guy, Tropic Thunder) updates the plot for today’s
audience and executes it with eye-popping CGI effects and breathtaking
cinematography.
In the remake set in present-day New York City, Walter
Mitty is reincarnated as a photographic film curator working for a
fictionalized version of Life
magazine. Despite its reputation for capturing iconic images of the American
life, the magazine has succumbed to the digital media and its print issues will
soon be a thing of the past (it is interesting to note that in reality,
Life stopped its publication as a standalone magazine in 2000 and is now a
photo library for the online edition of Time).
But there is more about Mitty than his impending unemployment: he has a
tendency to zone out and lapse into elaborate fantasies that are borderline pathological.
The alter ego in his daydreams is much more adventurous and audacious,
especially vis-à-vis his co-worker Cheryl Melhoff (played by Kristen Wiig) on
whom he harbors a secret crush.
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| One of the magazine's many iconic covers |
Stiller’s Mitty takes on
the wistful, Quixotic qualities of Forrest Gump. Unlike the protagonist in
James Thurber’s original story, the 21st Century Mitty actually does
something about his sad life. A third into the film, the nerdy curator sheds
his socially awkward self and transforms into a real-life daredevil. He embarks on a transcontinental journey to locate star photojournalist Sean O’Connor (played by
Sean Penn) in an attempt to recover a missing negative. The quest puts Mitty face-to-face
with hungry sharks in the Arctic sea, a volcanic eruption in Iceland and
AK-47-wielding Afghan warlords. All that has given the director plenty of latitude
to turn every video frame into centerfolds from a Lonely Planet coffee table book.
But that’s also where the
storytelling gets tricky. Whereas the line between fantasy and reality in the
original short story is intentionally blurred, that distinction in Stiller’s
adaptation – thanks to Mitty’s new found courage to act out his fantasies –
becomes unintentionally murky, making most of the set pieces difficult to sink
one’s teeth into on an intellectual level. By redeeming Mitty and making him a
real-life hero, Stiller and his screen writer Steve Conrad have painted
themselves to a narrative corner.
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| Ben Stiller, opposite the talented Sean Penn |
Storytelling problems
notwithstanding, the casting is flawless. Saturday Night Live veteran Kristen Wiig strikes the
right balance between sweet and sensible as the object of Mitty’s affection.
Sean Penn, wearing a sunburned and weathered face, looks the part as a
venerable photographer and plays it with his trademark grit. Turning 80 this
April, Shirley MacLaine as Mitty’s doting mother delivers a memorable
performance that would give Judy Dench and Maggie
Smith a run for their money. As for leading man Ben Stiller, he portrays the well-known literary character -- a delusional 40-something grappling with existential angst -- with equal parts gravitas and deadpan humor. The
comedian-turned-character actor has proven that he can be so much more than a clumsy
son-in-law or a disaster-prone museum watchman.
Other than the first and
the last 15 minutes, the film feels a bit sluggish, even tedious. By the time it is over, however,
all the dots connect and the loose ends get tied up. The big reveal at the end is
sentimental (especially for those of us who work in the print media) and will wet a few eyes in the theater. Even though it does not reach the spiritual and philosophical depths it wishes to achieve, Secret Life, like many of the characters in it, is sweet and good-natured. It is the feel-good movie of the year.
