Review: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Ben Stiller is a funny actor. Not funny as in comedic, but funny as in odd – mercurial, enigmatic, unfathomable. Some of his juvenile flicks (Along Came Polly) are pure Adam Sandler, while others are genuinely amusing cult hits (Zoolander). His directing and producing, meanwhile, is bafflingly intriguing (Submarine). As star, director and producer of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Stiller seems to be trying to cement his reputation as a serious cinematic player.

Inspired by the classic American character of yesteryear, Walter Mitty is about a depressed serial daydreamer learning to live his fantasies. Carpe Diem is the subliminal motto of this film. We follow events surrounding Life Magazine, where Walter works, turning exclusively online. He is charged with processing the final cover’s photograph, yet cannot locate it. Submitted by elusive explorer Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn), the picture apparently captures ‘the quintessence of life’ (magazine or mortal state?). Nudged by the colleague who he is infatuated with (Kristen Wiig), Walter embarks on an international adventure to locate Sean, with whom he shares a mutual respect, and retrieve the photo.

Walter’s fantastical fantasies are not the main focus of this film. Rather, the well-known character is used to tell a story of self-fulfilment. Walter inhabits his imagination because he cannot create success in the real world. As highlighted by his everyman shirt-and-tie uniform, Walter represents the average Joe. He speaks to us all when he is imagining an alternative reality: acting without hesitation, living life abundantly and shunning mediocrity. Learning to break his self-indulgent invisibility, Walter is a self-help guide for those who have ever been cowed by the prickly heat of shyness, uncertainty or timidity. (That’s everybody.) Here is insight into ordinary human emotions.

The film feels like it is a little shallow. The plot smoothly follows a predictable trajectory, and the dream-reality blend is abandoned early on. Some will thus see Walter Mitty as being compromised by its lack of substance. But it isn’t claiming to be deeply intellectual. Its whole charm results from the stripped-down story. People might not see the movie’s subtle virtues, but that is perhaps due to their own inability. I found that it stimulated a genuine emotional response.

Walter Mitty is not particularly funny either. Stiller is a comic actor, and a number of incidents are supposed to be amusing, but my laughter was limited. Adam Hendricks raises the comedic bar as the ‘transition manager’, a ludicrously arrogant corporate fool with a beard that’s half way between carpet and ZZ Top. Again, this flaw does not detract from the film’s insights.

Walter idolises Sean, but he is a bit of a moron. Resplendent with gap year hair and indigenous bracelets, O’Connell dishes out ‘old school’ wisdom like ‘I don’t take the photo if the moment means something to me’. (Why not? There’s a snow leopard in front of you!). But he is really a MacGuffin, a plot device which moves the narrative forward. He is there to inspire Walter into adventure, literally beckoning him from a photo during one daydream. If there is a single message at the heart of Walter Mitty, it is that we all should find our O’Connells so that we can live life to the full. That is surely a worthy enough reason to see this film.