“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is a winner. Sure, it’s a bit meandering, fantastical, and serves up its message in a syrupy manner, but it’s fun and harmless entertainment. It may not be transcendent, but “Mitty” is one of the most family-friendly offerings at the metroplex this season.
Based on the classic James Thurber short story, “Mitty” follows a daydreamer, Walter Mitty (played by director Stiller), who escapes from his boring life into fantasy. Screenwriter Steve Conrad’s adaptation of the story has Mitty working for Life magazine where he handles photographs. As Life begins to make the transition from print to digital, resulting in the loss of many jobs including, possibly, his own, Mitty decides to take a real world adventure in order to look for a lost photograph that may be Life’s last cover in print. This takes him around the world where he, for the first time, has real adventures.
Conrad’s script populates the story with caricatures. Adam Scott plays a cheesy executive charged with the transition of Life to digital. At times, his scenes are positively excruciating because they don’t likely resemble anything from the real world. Perhaps, this is all part of the whimsical approach Stiller is going for. Another character, played by Sean Penn, is a reclusive photographer who serves as one of the film’s central mysteries. It was also good to see Shirley MacLaine playing Mitty’s mother. The film certainly has an attractive cast that includes the likes of Kristen Wiig as a love interest and Kathryn Hahn as Mitty’s spacey sister.
The Mitty message is supposed to inspire us to stop dreaming and start doing. And while Ben Stiller’s romantic take on this classic story is dreamy and entertaining, it really doesn’t have any heft. In fact, the story is so whimsical and lighthearted that at no time does it appear that Mitty is in any sort of real danger. Without risk, the film didn’t have much lasting impact on me. I liked the pretty pictures and the characters were amusing, but it didn’t really leave me inspired. And I really think that is because I am jaded to this sort of old style storytelling.
But I call the film a winner. I think that the broad and watered-down approach here will appeal to a very wide audience who may be impressed by the visual techniques and laugh at the comedy elements. It is important to note that “Mitty” is rated PG. This is a rare thing these days. I think that families are the target audience here. And the fact that “Mitty” is opening on the same day that the oversexed and excessive “Wolf of Wall Street” also hits theaters makes “Mitty” the obvious choice for families.