Not a Home Run, But Enjoyable

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2013)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty tells the tale of Walter, a lonely, unadventurous negative asset manager at LIFE magazine who daydreams constantly, but when a photo negative goes missing, Walter embarks on a real-life adventure to track it down. The film is directed by and stars Ben Stiller, who for the most part manages to forego his traditional comedy trappings making a film that is offbeat, visually sumptuous, and different than just about anything else out there on the market, however that doesn't hold true for the entire film. Walter Mitty often dips into over-the-top comedy in the daydreams, and it's here that Ben Stiller kind of falls back into his old schtick. The thing is, this comedy is often humorous, but the daydreams don't always tie into the story or what is thematically going on at that point in the film. Overall, there are many great ideas involving characters, theme, and story beats, but they often aren't fleshed out enough. Too many things seem to happen merely by coincidence because the script said so and not because they felt organic to the story or the characters. In summation, I think that this film was a few rewrites away from being a truly great film. As it is, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is just an okay film, albeit one that will occasionally entertain and make you smile.
I give The Secret Life of Walter Mitty a 7 out of 10!