The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is Ambitious, but is Ambition always a Good Thing?

The Secret Life of of Walter Mitty (2 1/2 out of 5 Stars)

Directed by Ben Stiller (Tropic Thunder)

Written by: Steve Conrad (The Pursuit of Happyness)

Starring: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Sean Penn, and Shirley MacLaine

Most people know Ben Stiller the actor; he is the man who dodged some balls, posed as a model, met the parents, kept the museum safe, and so much more.  Few people realize Stiller has always had a large behind the scenes role with many of his films, and his television work.  Stiller started out as directorial work way back in 1987 on Saturday Night Live, then did work on his own series The Ben Stiller show.  Stiller then went on to direct his first bigger film with Reality Bites, Zoolander, and Tropic Thunder.  The Secret Life of Walter is his most ambitious project to date.

The film follows Walter Mitty who works at Life Magazine during the final days.  Walter has always lived a quiet life trying to do right by his mother (MacLaine), and sister an aspiring actress (Kathryn Hahn).  In trying to do the best for his family, Walter loses his sense of adventure he once had and finds himself "zoning out" in everyday life where he escapes on adventures, or tries to impress his pretty co-worker Cheryl (Wiig). 

As the end of the magazing is at hand Walter tests his own sense of adventure through photographer Sean O'Connell (Penn) who has felt a kinship with Walter over the years.  Walter realizes a negative is missing, and through inspiration from Cheryl he embarks on adventure to track down O'Connell, the negative, and himself.

Let me start by saying I liked Mitty more than I thought I would, the film is visually stunning.  Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh (The Piano, The Painted Veil) transports you into Walter's imagination, connecting the pieces of the advertising or every day subway station; he also transports you to Walter's actual adventures in Greenland, Iceland, and Afghanistan.  Dryburgh's work has involved immersing audiences into different worlds, and he does a marvelous job with this film.

I have to applaud Stiller for pushing himself as a director, over the years he has pushed himself to take on more challenging work.  Reality Bites was the personal 90s angst, while his next two films The Cable and Zoolander were funny they did not shake the core of Stiller as an artist.  Stiller found solid comedic ground in Tropic Thunder on of the funniest films of the 2000s, showing an edgier comedic side, and moving his direction in the right step.  Mitty is his best work as a director to date; he does his best with the material, and gives you a personal look at a man seeking to find refuge, but to wanting to soar, and find happiness.

While the film is good, the problem is that the film strays too far from the premise of the original 1947 with Danny Kaye.  The original film follows the misadventures in Walter's head in the original, while Stiller's ambition is a strength in this case its also the films weakness.  The script from Steve Conrad attempts something which tries to be too earnest in the sense that there is a blend of too many genres.  Stiller is growing as a director, but in this film he could have kept the visuals while maintaining a more grounded, and focused story.  

While some of the films smaller emotional sequences work the larger ones, which avoid subtlety like his meeting with O'Connell feel forced.  I'm all for sentimental films, but the sentiment needs to organic, and this film tends to force you to feel for this man who is often ill-defined.  I left asking who is Walter Mitty?  I also left wanting Papa John's, thinking about purchasing a Dell, and wondering if I joined E-Harmony would I get to meet Patton Oswalt.  The product placement in this film rivals m y worst film of the year, Man of Steel.

I admire Stiller's attempt, because I enjoyed the film more than I thought, and Wiig was great, more subtle than ever, but Mitty does not work as well as Ben Stiller hoped.

A Tribute to Great Film: Flirting with Disaster (1996)

Long before  director David O. Russell was clamoring for Oscar; he was making some of the smartest,
 and most original films.  Flirting with Disaster (1996) was not O. Russell's first feature film that was Spanking the Monkey (1994).  Both films are hilarious, but Disaster and his other film Three Kings (1999) are his best, ironically neither of these films got any attention from the Academy, and his lesser films The Fighter (2010), and Silver Linings Playbook (2012) won Oscars.

Moving away from the Oscar let's focus on Flirting with Disaster, which is such a great ensemble piece.  The film stars Ben Stiller as Mel Coplin, Mel was adopted and he decides to look for his parents after his son is born.  Mel uses an adoption agent named Tina Kalb played Tea Leoni.  Once Tina locates his birth parent, she Mel and Mel's wife Nancy Coplin played by Patricia Arquette head out on a dysfunctional road trip to meet/find Mel's birth family.

The premise seems pedestrian, and typical, but David O. Russell is a master of quirk in both his scripts, and his direction.  All of O. Russell's early work ranging even up up until 2004's I Heart Huckabees held on to this magnanimous quality.  O. Russell built a great dark humor within this film, and it never tries too hard to play with your emotions.  Flirting with Disaster is just plain hilarious, twisted, and all around one of the most underrated films of the 90s, and all time.  This film is the first glimpse into the genius of David O. Russell, and I hope American Hustle brings back that genius.

Enough swiping at O. Russell's grasps for Oscar; the man knows how to direct a great ensemble.  Ben Stiller is great in one of his first roles, as that hapless guy just trying to do right.  Patricia Arquette is also quite good as his wife who just wants her husband to pay attention to her needs, the jokes about her giving him a blow job, kill me.  While Stiller and Arquette are hilarious, my favorite lead in the film is Tea Leoni, her neurosis and constant mess ups with Mel's parentage are some of the funniest mometns in the film.

This film could also not exist without Mel's adopted parents, played so well and with perfect guilt by Mart Tyler Moore in a more like her Ordinary People character with humor, and George Segal a master of dark humor.  On the journey to finding his birth parents Mel's interactions become funnier by the moment, ranging from this southern woman living in San Diego played by the great character actress Celia Weston to his actual crazy LSD loving parents played by Lily Tomlin and Alan Alda.  On the road to his parents he meets two federal officers, the scene stealers of the film Richard Jenkins and young josh Brolin.  They are both a team at work and in the sheets.  Each of these actors plays their part so brilliantly, forming one of the best ensembles, but favorite joke is when they keep making Richard Jenkins character switch seats/cars or anything because everyone finds him annoying, priceless.

O. Russell knocked this film out of the park, and this is one of my new favorite comedies, the writing the acting are all so sharp, and this is the beginning of the career of a man who would direct great character studies, win our hearts, and make you laugh a lot.  Flirting with Disaster one hilarious film, and a classic.