The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is directed by and stars Ben Stiller. Walter Mitty (Stiller) leads a dull life. He doesn't know how to fill out his eharmony profile. He has spent the last 16 years dealing with photographs for LIFE magazine. For the last issue, the executives, led by some dick (Adam Scott), want to use a photo of Sean O' Connell's (Sean Penn) that was not delivered to Mitty's department. He decides to track down the nomadic O'Connell and find the missing photo to begin enjoying his life, stop daydreaming, and impress his office crush (Kristen Wiig).

Anything you liked about the trailers for this movie were mostly in the first 30-40 minutes. Outside of the jokes that everyone has seen, not a lot of them actually land. Most of them just come off as normal conversation. I'd chalk it up to bad comedic timing.

This movie is so predictable, everyone might have thought of the ending 10 minutes in. You're never really sure until it's revealed. The ending of every scene is as predictable as a coin with two heads. 

Mitty has a bad habit of daydreaming or "zoning out". It's interesting the first time (the one from the trailer), but after a while it jiust gets annoying. A couple of them just felt cartoonish and stupid. Kristen Wiig is placed throughout the film in these dreams as a reminder for why he's taking this journey but it feels really forced.

The character of Mitty would be more relatable if instead of zoning out during every confrontation, he either stood up for himself or backed down. Doing one or the other is more interesting than something we immediately know isn't really happening.

Adam Scott has gotten used to playing a complete douchebag on screen outside of Parks & Recreation. He seems comfortable in his role, but everyone outside of Ben Stiller and Sean Penn seem to be half-assing this movie. Patton Oswalt is literally phoning it in as the eharmony IT guy.

Kristen Wiig could be replaced by any other female actress. She isn't useless, but there's nothing unique about this role of Cheryl that puts Wiig above anyone else.

Sean Penn has a small role, but it's very different from what we've seen him in before. He used to being an over-the-top temperamental character. But in here he's calm, philosophical, almost inspiring, but his small amount of screen time isn't enough to turn this movie around.

This movie has been in planning for the better part of 2 decades. It feels like Stiller had this thrown into his lap, and he decided to try and make some kind of breakthrough out of it. While the cinematography is beautiful, it felt like some tourist advertisements for Greenland and Iceland. Its editing feels pretentious. The terrific music and beautiful landscape shots may be cool, but it makes it look like the movie is trying to be inspiring, without pulling it off.

Walter has this sister (Kathryn Hahn) who seems to serve no purpose at all. She doesn't even advance the plot in a way that another character couldn't. She must be there for comic relief, but EVERYONE is there for comic relief, so she just felt completely pointless.

Because of Stiller's comedic roots, the film simply can't be taken seriously as a drama. And since it's written and marketed as a comedy, but pretends to be this coming-of-age epic, the audience will walk out feeling neutral towards the film as a whole. It's perfectly bearable, but the life of Walter Mitty isn't as secret as they'd like us to think.

Rating: C

About Time

Richard Curtis, creator of Love Actually and Notting Hill, brings us this tale of time travel, romance, tragedy, but most importantly, life in About Time. The day after a disappointing New Year's Eve party, Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson) is told by his father (Bill Nighy) that the men in their family can travel back in time through their lives. Tim begins to use his new found power strictly in the pursuit of love.

This review is several weeks late, because of its limited release. But I caught it at my local dollar theater just today, and I'm glad I waited. This was easily one of the most underrated, enjoyable films of the year.

Tim meets Mary (Rachel McAdams) at a restaurant, but his path changes when he decides to help his roommate after his play has a disastrous opening night. Tim and Mary meet for the first time multiple times. It's delightfully awkward to watch Tim interact with someone he knows, but he's never met before. The two have incredible chemistry, making their relationship seem so sincere. That and the dialogue is so realistic and comparable to everyday life.

This film has characters that feel refreshing, original even. Tim's little sister "Kit Kat" (Lydia Wilson) is lovably eccentric, and the sadly forgetful Uncle Desmond (Richard Cordery), while not remotely important or original, still brings laughs to the screen. Even Tim's coworker Rory (Joshua McGuire) can be remembered and loved after such a small amount of screen time.

Tom Hollander plays Harry, the playwright roommate of Tim. Everything he does is so over the top and theatrical, but it's perfectly timed comedy wise. His lines are just so specialized, that you could never pull off quoting them in real life.

The film relies heavily on cringe humor. The sustained awkwardness of the conversations are just so real, that the audience is forced to react. Because we've all been there. Tim may be an introverted social outcast, but when he gains the confidence to speak, he really is quite charming.

About Time doesn't just focus on Tim trying to get a girlfriend. It shows the life after he gets the girl. Gleeson and McAdams play the couple that everyone likes. They don't show off their love, and they don't fight all of the time either. They might just be one of the most easily likable couples Hollywood has produced.

Gleeson gives a fantastic breakthrough performance, and I can't wait to see what other work he gets out of this. McAdams plays the average girl so well, I think it would be hard to find a woman who couldn't relate to the character. The two of them form this perfect couple, that you everyone wishes they could become.

Bill Nighy's character surprised me. It's not often in film these days, that you see a father and son have this strong of a relationship without conflict. He comes off as a wonderful father and a loving husband. But it's as if there's nothing wrong with him. He is just so likable, there's no reason you could hate this guy.

Being a time travel movie, About Time is riddled with plot holes that no other movie of its sort can avoid. But it lays its rules out simply. You cannot travel back before your birth (i.e. you can't go back and kill Hitler), and you can't travel forward in time. The butterfly effect still applies, it just never had made that big of a ripple. All Tim has to do is stand in a dark place, clench his fists, and think of the moment he's traveling to. But he can't be in two places at once. So even for a time traveller, there may not be enough time in the world.

The thing about this movie, is that it's advertised as a romance. But it's not just for dates. It's for fathers and sons, newlyweds, our elders, and our young (but not too young). It's about life. I'd like to think this is a movie that everyone needs to see at some point. With spectacular dialogue (maybe some adlibbing), brilliant performances, original characters, and a message that can be applied to everyone, About Time makes you want to live every day as if it were to be your last.

Rating: A

I realize I'm starting off this blog by giving everything a high rating, but December is fantastic time of year for film.