The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (PG)
15/03/14 22:54 Filed in: 2013
Starring: Ben Stiller
December 2013
This review was originally tweeted in Real-time from the back row of a movie theater and appears @BackRoweReviews. Though efforts were made to tease rather than ruin this movie’s memorable lines and moments, some spoilers may exist in the following evaluation. The original tweets appear in black, while follow-up comments appear in red. For concerns over objectionable content, please first refer to one of the many parental movie guide websites. All ratings are based on a four star system. Happy reading!
Walter’s wink is rejected. The joys of online dating.
And has product placement in a movie ever been as front and center as eHarmony is here?
Lots of Ally McBeal like flights of fancy, one of which features a poetry falcon.
The last LIFE, a missing photo and a meet cute.
Don’t touch Mitty’s Stretch Armstrong.
I punctured mine as a kid and got the green monster guy as a replacement. Those toys were supposed to be puncture proof…leave it to me.
Am I way off base here or should Mitty check the wallet for the missing negative?
Refer to Jeff Goldblum’s line in Jurassic Park after the T-Rex smashes through the fence.
The Benjamin Button fantasy is humorous.
Mitty finds a thumb in Greenland.
Does that mean he has a green thumb?
Does Iceland really have a Papa John’s?
Another shameless, and dubious, product placement.
Searching for ghost cats in the Himalayas.
BTW, did Mitty ever submit a vacation request at work?
Mitty’s mom saves his wallet and his LIFE.
Mom = Shirley MacLaine. Her “Oh, by the way…” meeting with Penn is contrived beyond belief.
Final analysis: a sweet film that appeals to the daydreamer in all of us.
This life-affirming film reminds us that we’re all extraordinary & that life is an adventure.
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars. Directed by Stiller, the film is inspirational but predictable.
A feel good film based on James Thurber’s classic and the original 1947 movie starring Danny Kaye, the new Mitty is endearing and ennobling but is also exceedingly overly simplistic in the script department. There’s no character complexity and no narrative nuance here. Everything is buttoned up just as you’d expect it to be. Though painfully two-dimensional at times, Stiller’s Mitty is a revealing character study of a man trapped inside his own mental prison, however elaborate a prison it is. Mitty’s attempts at breaking out of self-imposed strictures, routines and modes of behavior is half the fun of the movie, and in our increasingly isolated society, I’m sure many audience members can identify with Stiller’s portrayal of a highly intelligent and creative individual who’s constrained by social inadequacies, whether real or imagined. The other half of what makes the movie fun is the globetrotting to Iceland, Afghanistan and the Himalayas, all of which were filmed on location in Iceland. So if an uncomplicated, warm fuzzy fest is on today’s movie menu, order up the Mitty with a side of popcorn and you’ll be completely satisfied.