Every now and again, a movie is released that isn’t favored by many critics and doesn’t do well at the box office but finds its audience, respect and admiration later. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty opened on Christmas Day in 2013 to polarizing reviews. Produced on a huge budget of $90 million, it made about $188 million worldwide. Maybe it was because this was Ben Stiller’s directorial follow-up to the brilliant Tropic Thunder, some critics were expecting more.
There are still polarizing sides to his movie The Cable Guy many years later. But while both Cable Guy and Tropic Thunder are both dark comedies, Walter Mitty remains a straight-forward movie with a few comic elements. I’s more like an adventure drama about the titular character who lives a humdrum life as the negative asset manager for Life magazine, which is a nice way of saying he spends most of his time in a windowless room looking over pictures. Walter has to take an elevator to a more lively floor then take the stairs down to his office area.
Walter is in his mid to late 40s. He’s single and never married. Like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, Walter’s adulthood took a different path than what he wanted when his father died when he was a teenager so he had to take a job at Papa John’s Pizza to help support his family. (But unlike George, he doesn’t whine too much when things don’t go his way.) His mother, Edna (Shirley MacLaine), and sister, Odessa (Kathryn Hahn), are loving and supportive. But Walter wants more. He often zones out while daydreaming thinking of himself in a better life of adventure and excitement.
A new employee, Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig), has been hired at the magazine a few months earlier and Walter is smitten with her. He’s noticed she’s on eHarmony. So, one day, he makes a profile and hopes to see if there is a connection with Cheryl. Yeah, the character might seem like a stalker, but isn’t that what social media kinda feels like. And like his character in There’s Something About Mary, Stiller brings his gullibility to the role. He likes Cheryl and isn’t turned off that she’s a single mother of a teenager, Rich (Marcus Antturi).
But his profile is pretty bland, which customer service rep Todd Maher (Patton Oswalt) notices and works to encourage him to beef it up. However, Walter realizes he hasn’t done much. One day at work, it’s revealed the magazine is shutting down its last print publication as they transition to online media only. But Ted Hendricks (Adam Scott), a managing director wants to use a “Quintessence of Life” photo photojournalist Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn) has submitted. However, neither Walter nor his assistant, Hernando (Adrian Martinez), can find the photo negative as O’Connell still shoots on film rather than digita photos.
Also, O’Connell lives basically off the grid as much as he can as a globe-trotting adventure photojournalist. There’s no phone number to contact him. He actually sends a telegram to the Life office. Walter finds himself working with Cheryl as they attempt to track down how to contact O’Connell. And they slowly start communicating more. She’s also sympathetic toward him as Hendricks seems to mock Walter. They discover that O’Connell might actually be in Greenland as a negative shows a ship that’s registered out of the country.
Faced with what to do next, Walter decides that since he’s got a passport that’s still valid, he’ll book a flight to Greenland to see if he can track down O’Connell. But along the trip, Walter realizes that he’s going to have to do more to find O’Connell than just asking people at random. He ends up hitching a ride with a helicopter pilot who is going to deliver some items to the ship and finds himself in Iceland during a volcanic eruption.
But back in New York City, Hendricks and the rest of the executive team are laying off employees, including Cheryl and Hernando, and grilling Walter to produce the photo. Walter eventually comes to understand that life has more to offer than day-dreaming about what he wants to do. He’s afraid to talk to Cheryl initially but they end finding some common ground as she helps him find to see how they can contact O’Connell. He then notices that Rich rides a skateboard which Walter did as a child and teaches him some tricks.
Walter tells Todd he’s fascinated by “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” and wants thinks that’s the way he can communicate with Cheryl through eHarmony. However, what he really needs to do is just be himself which Cheryl likes. What makes the movie great is that even though Walter might seem a little odd, most of the people around him really like him, including O’Connell. It’s people like Hendricks, who thinks he’s too good for others as an executive, who are condescending to Walter. With the exception of Scott having a comically fake beard, he plays the antagonistic role perfectly.
A lesser movie would’ve made Walter a subject of ridicule from those around him. Even Todd, who intially only communicates with him over the phone, becomes fascinated as he hears Walters exploits. Stiller gives us people who are generally good-nautured. Even Odessa could’ve been portrayed more as the quirky hateful sister, but she’s got her own eccentricities. Odessa wants to be an actress and has landed the role as Rizzo in Grease but the production is at a church.
There’s also some beautiful cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh and a musical score by Theodore Shapiro, Jose Gonzalez and Rogue Wave along with a collection of songs that make it more inspiring. Stiller uses David Bowie’s wonderful “Space Oddity” during a crucial scene where Walter’s day-dream fantasies become a reality.
As for the photo, it’s a MacGuffin, really to get Walter out of the office. He eventually tracks down O’Connell who’s in the Himalayas trying to take a picture of a snow leopard. And what happens from here is Walter finally learns what it means to live in the moment. As for whether he and Cheryl end up, there is a subtle interaction between the two characters that’s acted so perfectly by Stiller and Wiig, it’s one of the best movie moments.
Walter Mitty ended up on the Top Ten Films by the National Board of Reviews and was nominated by the Saturn Awards for the Best Fantasy Film. It does walk the line between fantasy and reality at first but once Walter begins on his way to track down O’Connell, he stops day-dreaming. One of the funniest scenes is a parody of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button that’s meant to make fun of forced inspirational movies. You can see traces of Tropic Thunder’s satire here.
I can understand why some critics didn’t like it. There are moments that seem implausible but I think that adds to the charm. Walter went from a skateboarding teenager with a mohawk to being a working class stiff. But then he realizes his life isn’t over. It’s not a mid-life crisis but a redirection. I think it’s because people Walter’s age were told that where they are in their 40s is where they are. It’s a story about realizing that you can do amazing things. But unlike It’s a Wonderful Life, Walter doesn’t see himself with the “hero factor.” When they are forced to sell his mother’s favored piano for money, Walter laments that it was his responsiblity to provide but Edna assures him it doesn’t matter.
Even at the end when Walter has lost his job, he’s more optimistic on the next chapter of his life. I think it tells people that they shouldn’t get bogged down by a job or some “responsibility” they feel they should have due to outdated society expectations. It isn’t that Walter is irresponsible, it’s just that you sometimes have to take risks. You have to talk to the person you like and see how it goes. You can’t sit in an office watching the world move around you.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 