The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Digibook (Blu-ray /DVD / Digital HD)

(Be Advised - SPOILERS)This is not a movie that should have worked, and looking at Rotten Tomatoes, many of the critics did not think it did (though 3/4 of the viewers liked it). It's not a great film. 12 Years a Slave was a great film...which I nonetheless hated, coming away from it from feeling empty and manipulated. In contrast, I was deeply moved by Walter Mitty, profoundly more so than that other, Important Film. I came out of Walter Mitty feeling a genuine sense of uplift and wellness, which, though it didn't really track with the content, was actually there.The film is loosely based on a wisp of a story by James Thurber (which, despite being an undergrad English Major, and despite "Walter Mitty" being a cultural shorthand for a big-dreaming little-man, I never read until today). The movie begins with Walter Mitty, a "negatives assets" worker (there are two in his department) at LIFE Magazine, on the day it has been acquired and is being turned into an online-only product. The usual corporate white-collared goons come in from the head office to execute the unfit (they all, inexplicably, have beards), with the lead, Ted Hendricks, being played by Adam Scott (who I loved in Tell Me You Love Me). That's happening as Mitty has been smitten by Cheryl Melhoff (Kristin Wiig), who is a recent divorcee, and newly employed at LIFE. As the film opens, Mitty is trying to "wink" her through eHarmony, and is being shut down by the site for not having done enough with his life. Whence he meets Todd, the helpful customer service rep who befriends Walter and acts as an appreciative fan through the film.The plot pivots around the missing "negative 25", sent to Walter for the last cover of LIFE by the famous and maverick photographer, Sean O'Connell. Cheryl plants the seed to go seek out O'Connell (played by a beautifully scruffy Sean Penn), which he does, with a trip to Iceland and then Afghanistan. He returns, settles scores with Hendricks, and gets the girl.It shouldn't work, at all.So how does it work? Well, let me lay out the ways I don't think it works.Number one: Ben Stiller is not the right actor to play Thurber's Walter. You look in his face and it's not that of a beaten down everyman. The vacuity of Derek Zoolander insouciant mug is gone. There's depth, history, strength, and self-awareness. He's not broken and he knows what is going on in the world around him, and what people are, and (essentially) how to engage them. He daydreams, true, but they are not the pathetic compensations of a man who is at heart a coward. That's not Walter's heart, which is clear from very early on in the film. He's not looking out at the world through a fog of failure and weakness. There's already a strength and perceptiveness in him from the beginning. Therefore he's not a believable Walter Mitty, as Thurber portrayed him.Secondly, the setup: Small man discovers his Bigness by facing and overcoming trials of strength and courage, and winning the girl. Well, in a sense that's the Hero's Journey, so that's OK, as a structure, but dangerously trite. If it was done more straight, with earnestness on the part of the film, it would have been treacly awfulness.Third, the Other Places and Other People as Route to Awakening. That could have also been painfully done. Really painfully. I tend to avoid these film premises, so nothing comes to mind immediately as an example. But the thought of the Wise Native makes me start gagging like a cat with a hair ball. (Please don't go all Avatar, either. In that film, it's the half-breed that saves the natives.)But with all that, why does it work and how does it work?I think Stiller's goal is essentially to present the feeling of the state of self-integration as a tone. It's that state which Mitty solidifies through facing himself, via following through with his quest. Stiller doesn't seem to care to present a map of the way there, in its details. Unlike, perhaps, some 60's story of travel to India to find enlightenment, Stiller is not saying, "Here's how you have to do it." He doesn't care about presenting a "credible" portrait of the journey that Mitty is on. He's not bound to Mitty as the Thurber or the quest structure would seem to define the character. Mitty, once moving (which, I'd argue, is from the moment he pushes Cheryl's "wink" button), is real, engaged, with depth, and with a power of his choices. He doesn't waffle when he chooses. Even in the bar, in Iceland, deciding not to go with the drunken helicopter pilot is not a craven choice. It's actually quite rational and understandable not to go over a frozen body of water with a man you just met, who will likely pass out at the control of a several ton machine suspended off a whirligig. That scene does not match with a character who is supposed to be a weak, ineffectual, daydreamy man. His choice to go is not, then, overcoming cowardice, but rather, embracing audaciousness and chance. That's very different.Mitty's journey is not so much a depiction of transformation, as of coming out of pause mode (begun as a kind of shock reaction to his father dying when he was young).So, if Stiller is not presenting a real depiction of transformation, or a map to courage and change, then why has he not failed? If he uses cliched structures and plot devices, why does the movie not feel hackneyed and unearned?Because, again, I don't think that's his intention. The secondary characters--Cheryl, the helicopter pilot, Hernando the other negative assets guy, Todd at eHarmony, even Bearded Corporate Lackey--are too full and have too many moments that point to (even if not fleshed out) inner lives, which are not pre-programmed by the film's overt conventions. There's too much interiority to these characters, who should, if the external structures (of quest, transformation, seeking-the-girl) be shells or ciphers, organized around Mitty. But they're not.Instead, the film gives a series of events, characters, and locations which are all tonally consistent. The beautiful mountains of Afghanistan, the starkly sumptuous Iceland and the rugged space of Greenland; the quirky foreigners and sailors; the fighting of a shark without totally freaking out; skate boarding down a scary-steep road; outrunning a volcano. They are all underlay by a tone, like a subliminal musical drone that colors all the overt notes, which, although those notes may adhere to a certain "melodic" structure, are fundamentally changed by the foundational harmonic, being the integration of the self with itself.The encounter with Sean O'Connell is the keystone of this. O'Connell should be the Wise Man on the Mountain. He's a man of the Old Ways (he still shoots on film, is geographically enigmatic, and is unconcerned with money), who Mitty, literally stumbles over on top of a mountain, laying in wait to photograph the rare snow leopard (referencing Peter Mathiasson's book, The Snow Leopard, about a quest for enlightenment symbolized by the leopard). The potential for rank kitsch is breathtaking. Yet O'Connell is played, and directed, as an actual man, with his own particular interior that is not beholden to the external trappings of the character, but who is real, spontaneous, and wise in his way, without being a cloying prick about it. He does not represent what should be striven for. Rather, he's another of the film's elaborations on the felt quality of a state.So, that's all why The Secret Life of Walter Mitty works, because it's not about what it looks like it's about. Rather, it's a series and collection of "carrier melodies," that allow for that underlying drone to be communicated, the tone of the state of self-integration, of an interior self that matches an exterior self. The trappings are not the point. The beautiful scenery and the foreigners in foreign lands are not the point. The point is to have two hours of exposure to a state, which is your state, which is what the felt-sense of that integration is. That's why it works.

In my opinion, this is Ben Stiller’s best film. It’s well written, features solid performances, and is impressively directed. The storyline is engaging and captures modern challenges without any political bias. A feel-good film not to be missed.

I absolutely LOVE this movie, and I love the short story, as well. Some people don't connect the two at all, but I see this as a modernization of the story, and rather than Thurber's intent to let Walter continue to escape into daydreams, the movie takes it a step further, and takes Walter on a path that leads to fulfillment, rather than self-perpetuating misery. Thurber's humor always has a dark side, so the story is funny and sad at the same time. Instead of allowing the story to simply be a series of daydreams, which would leave the viewers feeling as empty as the story, Stiller and his crew gave it a deeper meaning, which is a satisfying ending.The cinematography is outstanding--gorgeous, on location filming paired flawlessly with a soundtrack that resonates in your bones. Stiller's performance is one of his best--he's still got a bit of his goofy humor, but he makes Walter real, relatable, and sympathetic. You root for him when he's facing failure, and his subtle fortitude and strength is the true heart of the character. No, this is not the same exact Walter Mitty from the story. This is a modernization, and modern audiences want a story that has a resolution.As a teacher, I've used this movie and the story in the classroom, comparing both and analyzing themes and motifs in each version. Walter daydreams because he is trapped in a life that leaves him, essentially, emasculated. His wife henpecks him, he feels inadequate to other men, and has no control over his life. In his daydreams, he becomes an expert, a professional, the linchpin that holds crises together, the ideal man. In the movie, Walter is under everyone else's control--he quietly works and follows the rules in order to take care of his family. Pretty similar to the story... this time, he's single, but the women in his life (mom, sister) are the ones who have the influence over him, which is parallelled at work. There, he works in the basement, quietly supporting everyone who contributes to Life magazine, and mostly unrecognized as anything other than a mouse. Again, emasculated by females, and intimidated or overshadowed by more assertive, more masculine men. The photographer Sean O'Connell is the ultimate example of masculinity, unafraid, adventurous, somewhat inscrutable, but kind and thoughtful. Walter admires him even as he feels inadequate when compared to him.The addition of a love interest (oh, how I love Kristen Wiig!) is the catalyst for change in the film. Without her, Walter would have just continued in his humdrum life, doing his duty to his family and being unnoticed everywhere. Patton Oswalt serves as the voice of normalcy (a bit like a Greek Chorus), voicing the perspectives of all extroverts in society. And in the end, this becomes an important relationship--another guy in the world, making a difference for someone. And that's what Walter really wants--to be appreciated a little and not lonely. And in the story, that's what Mitty wants, too. A little appreciation.This movie takes a contemporary perspective on this concept and makes it epic. Instead of limping on in multiple daydreams, Walter takes a chance, and as Robert Frost wrote, "that has made all the difference." Ultimately, you have a basic plot (man vs. himself) fleshed out in a delicately, carefully-wrought tale (and yes, there are some cool, subtle things that make this an awesome movie) that takes the viewer on a journey that ends with a smile and inspiration. Need some examples? The original story was published in the New Yorker in 1942. Walter is 42, and the story begins on his birthday, in New York, where he works for a prestigious magazine. No coincidence! :)Shirley MacLaine is perfect as Walter's mom, a loving if slightly scattered mother with a practical point of view. Adam Scott is delightfully detestable as the new, arrogant, egotistic, and goal-oriented boss, a perfect foil for Walter. The rest of the supporting cast is believeable and well-chosen. Even the camera angles used subtly emphasize Walter's lack of control over his life, especially the ones in the beginning where the camera is high above him, showing him to be ant-like in the crowds of people bustling about. This perspective emphasizes his anonymity in society.I even like the opening credits of this movie--subtly blended into the picture as if they were merely normal signs on the street. Even that emphasizes Walter's invisibility in the simplest, ordinary things.So, I love this movie for both the story, the deeper elements, and the craft of filmmaking. This movie completely changed the way I see David Bowie's "Major Tom", as well. :)

Love this movie, that don’t mind rewatching. Ben stiller and supporting cast great.

amazing movie