Has good aspects but generally doesn't seem to know what it wants to do and is only consistent in one aspect – its unevenness

Rating: Null/10 (17 January 2014)

I'm not overly familiar with the source material but the name Walter Mitty does tend to mean something even to those that haven't read the story – and accordingly it is of a daydreamer, a man lost in his own thoughts and being ineffective. This film version of it using this as the starting point and from here we see our main character forced to overcome his inertia and take action and thus having the type of adventures that he would only experience by spacing out for a while. I remember seeing the trailer for this recently and both me and my partner came away with the same impression – we had no idea what this film was but for sure the trailer didn't make it look good at all. Sometimes this can be the case with difficult films though – because if the film isn't one clear thing, then perhaps marketing struggle to sell it and you end up with trailers that either present it as something it isn't, or just don't sell anything. As a result I decided to see it for myself.
The answer is clear before you are too far into the film; the trailer doesn't know what to sell because the film doesn't know what it is. By turns it is a simple message to "seize the day" to the target age audience of workers seeing their youth fade; but then it is also a travelogue of beautiful scenery in beautiful places; but then it is also a special effects film with big sequences of superhero fights and explosions; but then it is also much more introspective and character- focused; but then it is also a comedy with goofy slapstick and movie spoofs. All of this is in there in many different ways and almost none of it works when you put it next to another aspect – which is a problem in a self-contained 2 hour film. By the end the film felt so aimless and meandering that I wasn't sure why I should care Perhaps some people will be moved by the "just do it" message, or the "all ended well then" conclusion but these were so simplistic and unmatched with so much else that I really was left cold.
Bits of it work in isolation and I did enjoy some aspects of the film, but the whole thing is uneven and seems to be lacking in consistency in its tone and its aims (if it even has any). I am all for films that can pull off a complex mix of ideas, emotion at different levels, tones, but this is not a film that pulls it off – this is just a film where a lot of things tend to exist very close to one another. The script seems to be the problem but I am not convinced that Ben Stiller knows what he is making here. His direction seems directionless outside of getting some great shots. This is even more evident in his acting; he delivers a performance that is whimsical and introspective but he does it in the middle of a film with nothing there to support that performance. Wiig is actually pretty good in a simple role, because she is pretty and likable without being so unreal as to become part of Mitty's fantasy herself. The rest of the cast are solid enough but again everyone is just acting out their scene in isolation.
Maybe there is a beautiful, moving story in Conrad's script; it is impossible to tell here. The film will give you some laughs, it will give you some nice moments, it will give you some beautiful landscapes and it will give you some spectacle but it will not do anything consistently and this is what ultimately sunk the film for me. For once the movie trailer was accurate and honest in its reflection of the movie, because the film doesn't know what it is, and it doesn't work.