Adventure is out there if your name is Ben Stiller

Rating: 4/10 (6 January 2014)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; one of many movies released over this holiday season is about a timid photographer who works for Life magazine and sets off on the journey of his lifetime to find a missing print and photographer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn). The movie's motive (at least it seems) for audiences of today is to experience new things and find what you're looking for in your life. If you're as shy as Walter, find that experience or excitement and fill that hole, yadda yadda yadda. That message is all fine and dandy, but to what cost? The Secret Life of Walter Mitty becomes so extreme that it takes away from it's original motive; and it suffers. There is just too much riff raff going on in this movie for me to enjoy it.
Ben Stiller portrays Ben Stiller, excuse me I mean, Walter Mitty, a shy Ben Stiller *SORRY* ahem, photographer who can't seem to break out of his awkward shell and ask his cute co-worker Cheryl (Kristen Wigg) out on a date. He has a hard enough time communicating with her, but he also has serious day dreaming issues, slipping to and from fantasies featuring exotic mountain climber guy and saving kittens from burning buildings. These fantasies are exciting. They're a great thing to build the plot around, however what seemed to be a bright idea gets shrugged off by the second act. Once Walter abruptly flees to Europe, these fantasies have vanished. What seemed like an everyday problem for Mitty is now magically replaced by shark wrestling skills; climbing mountains and evading volcanic eruptions. Stiller also has one backpack but a bottomless wardrobe(?). The events get so ridiculous, at times you wonder if they are Walter's fantasies or not; which they aren't, and another seemingly clever plot device falls flat. To top it all off, I didn't give two shits about Ben Stiller or his character, Walter Stiller, who was wooden as all hell in his performance. Kristen Wigg's part wasn't large enough for me to care if Mitty ended up with her or not, and the blatant product placement for eHarmony at the end completely sealed the deal for me. Walter Mitty goes on a remarkable, life changing journey and supposedly does some amazing things; yet he's barely a changed man by the the end of the film.
Walter Mitty wasn't an awful movie; but I could tell it was Ben Stiller's artistic moment and nothing else. It didn't sell for me. There is some beautiful cinematography with shots of Iceland and Europe; but that isn't enough for me to call your picture any good, Mr. Stiller.
From http://bbman94.wix.com/brandonsmoviecorner