The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: Disorganized But Delightful

"Every child is born with a vivid imagination. But just as a muscle grows flabby with disuse, so the bright imagination of a child pales in later years if he ceases to exercise it."

 - Walt Disney

I'm not afraid to say it: our modern culture is trying to destroy imagination, no matter how much it may claim to the contrary. Even our entertainment industry, this cultural giant that's supposed to be a beacon of creativity, has been turned into a machine of the status quo, paying endless homage to the magic of the past without so much as a thought for the future. And so I have conflicting feelings about Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Yes, it's an adaptation, a remake of a movie of the same name from 1947. Still, it doesn't behave like any other adaptation I've seen before or even many original films for that matter, bursting with a creative vibrancy that almost outweighs its many unfortunate shortcomings. Walter Mitty is a joy to watch in nearly every way, despite technically not being a very good movie when you stop to think about it. We all daydream from time to time, some of us way more than others, and in a lot of ways, this movie laid a hand on my shoulder and told me that sometimes, it's okay to dream.

Likely my favorite thing about The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is its charming ability to make the ordinary and the mundane so unbelievably fascinating and colorful. Mitty's perspective of the world and his seemingly never-ending imagination are astounding on both fronts, an endless well of surrealism that I can only imagine would be made out of multi-colored bricks. The creativity of this movie is a joyous thing to see, playing with our mundane reality like a child in a massive sandbox, and the only predictable thing about it and about what you might see in it is that you won't be able to predict it. Still, I have to admit that an ever-too-recognizable story lies under the beautiful and imaginative coat of paint, a half-full one at that.

It's said that good movies move, and the biggest flaw of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is definitely its familiar and paper-thin narrative, an hour and some change of story trying to stretch itself out to fill two hours. This movie is never in any hurry to get much of anywhere, leaning on its admittedly strong humor to get through many of its hard-to-miss but entirely avoidable narrative dry spells, and I wasn't fond of its lack of virtually any economy or efficiency. Granted, you'll probably have a lot of fun going nowhere fast, but the critic in me found myself checking my watch on occasion when the plot thinned out, and even though the shortage of material in Walter Mitty is in some ways outshone by an abundance of brain and heart, the disorganization of this occasionally-wonderful piece is still frustrating.

I've briefly hinted at it in other reviews, but I'll come out and say it here - I have severe ADHD, and have had to train myself to be patient enough to watch movies. Nevertheless, having an amusingly out-of-pocket mind can be a lot of fun, and I don't think I've ever seen a movie capture what goes on inside the heads of us resident dreamers better than The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. And true to form, this is a movie whose mish-mash plot is about as organized as the college desk I never use for anything other than storage space. Still, it's nevertheless extremely likable and strangely magnetic despite its shortcomings, which gives me hope for people like myself. Its imagination is also undeniable, and I think this is something worth celebrating. By the way, James Thurber is the name of the man who originally published the short story behind Walter Mitty. And despite the movie's shortcomings, I can honestly say that I'm sure Mr. Thurber would have been proud.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - 6/10

Genesis 1:31