THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (2013 Film)

I saw it last night. I remember not being able to get through the original when I was a little kid.

I don't think any of the billion white male directors making English language films comes close to what Stiller does with his take on middle-aged existential crises. As an actor, well, nobody touches what he does in Greenburg mode, and this is a further evolution of that.

The cinematography is GORGEOUS, there are breathtakingly composed shots, one involving a water fountain took my breath away. Overall, I am not sure the movie left me totally satisfied, I am tired of successful actresses playing "the girlfriend," but it IS an achievement, and well worth seeing. I may end up seeing it again, because there is real substance there and Stiller is a vastly underrated director.

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I think Stiller is a really underrated director. He's had flops and work that seems most used for nostalgia goggles but I love Zoolander and Tropic Thunder and am interested to see him in this territory. People seemed mixed but I think it's important that he take this step as an actor-director.

I couldn't sit thru the original either. I just got the screener. Namo;ok to watch at home or do I need to go to the theater?

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Oops...double post.

Updated On: 12/27/13 at 07:12 PM

I'm tempted to play the angry curmudgeon here, lamenting the fact that the priceless James Thurber story is, once again, being trampled on by Hollywood Visigoths, but I do think that Ben Stiller is a Man of many gifts and I confess to being curious to see what he does with this film.

You can download--free of charge--a copy of Stiller reading the Thurber original at Audible.com. It's a gem well worth 15 minutes of your time.




Audible download

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Updated On: 12/27/13 at 07:42 PM

I must confess that I too am a bit in the "curmudgeon" mindset in regards to this movie. I feel that the inspirational route won't be true to Thurber's original intent and that having Mitty go on such an extravagant adventure (as depicted in the advertisements) might defeat the purpose of the original story. Of course this is all assumption, having not seen the film yet.

It's nice to hear that the cinematography is well done. I feel like a lot of movies today go for a very bland lifeless look with very little color or vibrancy.

I'm all for strong cinematography--especially in films, but even the most stunning camera-work can't keep me from being skeptical about a film that alleges to be an adaptation of 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' in which the character of Walter's wife has been "deleted".

The very essence of Walter Mitty is that his heroic, "secret" life is borne of his impotent frustration in the face of his indomitable, commandeering wife. Her voice both propels him into his fantasy and anchors him to reality, dragging him back from the clouds to his humble, cowed seat next to her. Without Mrs. Mitty, Walter is just a guy who daydreams, and the story's place in Thurber's brilliant, sardonic and epic tale--told in prose, verse and pen & ink illustration--of the War of the Sexes is utterly lost.

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I wonder what Thurber's thoughts on this new adaptation would be.

Regardless of whether the story is set in the past, the present or the future, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is ineffably, inextricably and inherently the story of a Man and his Wife. The "secret" life is a secret kept from his wife. To delete Walter's wife in order to make the story more "contemporary" is like calling your film "King Lear" and making the lead character childless because kids don't test well with your target demographic.

By all means, tell whatever story you care to tell, but why select a very slender source material and then eliminate its essence?

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One of the worst film of the year. Desperately wants to be a movie with something big to say but nothing connects. Even Walter Mitty's flights of fancy aren't that fanciful. I really feel that Stiller had no grasp of the material. This movie was too big for him. The best thing about it was the score.
Skip it and go see Her.

I thought HER was one of the most thought provoking and beautiful films of the year and I loved every single frame of it.

You ask how does one fall in love with an OS? Well in this film, in the future, this OS (Samantha) talks and responds like a real person. It's like the show CATFISH where people fall in love with people they've never met and have only ever emailed with or talked to over the phone. The film is disturbing in the sense that it points to society's desire to be as free from human interaction as possible in exchange for doing everything virtually. As Phoenix walks down the street in one scene and sees every single person interacting with their OS, it's no different than when you take a look outside now and everyone you see has their face down in their phone.

But I know that HER won't be for everybody. As the lady who walked out behind me said to her friend while I was still wiping the tears from my face, "Well that was the movie that went on forever".

Best I felt the same way about Her before I saw it. It ended up being one of my favorite movies of the year. Spike Jonze does way more with a one gag concept than Ben Stiller manages to get out of a movie that should have been epic.