The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Why, Ben Stiller?

Why, in the midst of such a remarkable film season, would you release a film as uninspired as “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?”

The film was aggressively advertised, and I, at least, was kind of excited for it — I mean, the trailer made it look pretty great — but the end product is sort of, well, a mess.

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” follows its titular character Walter, a negative editor at Life magazine with a habit of zoning out into fantastical daydreams, as the magazine prepares for its final issue. He can’t seem to find the photo negative that’s supposed to be the final issue’s cover photo, so he tracks down the photojournalist who captured the image all around the world to find that missing negative .

Spoiler alert: He also finds himself. And the courage to ask out his dream girl, played by a clearly-doesn’t-want-to-be-there Kristen Wiig.  

The premise of the film is OK. The story is OK. But the filmmaking is so tired and bored that it’s painful to watch. And this is filmmaking from the top-down — everything from directing (also by Stiller) to acting to the technicals — absolutely nothing seems interesting. Both Stiller and Wiig phone in their performances so brashly it feels like they’re stealing money from you.

It really sucks to sit through a film that’s not good enough to enjoy and not bad enough to laugh at — it’s just nothing. If it didn’t exist, nothing would change.

The tone of the film changes drastically from one minute to the next with its brief and confusing flashes of weird, absurdist humor. Moments where you’ll want to turn to your friend, squint your eyes, and say, “… What?”  

Despite a few brief moments of excitement, it’s strangely deadpan for being a film about insane adventures to nearly-uncharted parts of the world.

I will give this Ben Stiller brainchild credit where credit is due, however. It achieves a pretty solid atmosphere quite a bit of the time, which is very important in this film, and the punch line of the film is sweet and endearing.

So congratulations, Ben Stiller. You did nothing for your slipping career except give yet another example of how you have no merit as a cinematic artist.