The Story "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" Wanted to Tell

"Secret Life of Walter Mitty" seems like a standard romcom about a guy (Ben Stiller) with a run-of-the-mill personality/physical defect (constant daydreaming) that he has to overcome in order to catch the girl of his dreams (Kristen Wiig) but there's a lot of depth that the tagline and initial marketing presentations of the film curiously ignored.

If I had to make an educated guess, I'd wager that (director/star) Ben Stiller and company considered the daydreaming angle as an afterthought that needed to be packaged into the pitch.

Hollywood today runs on pre-existing properties and the daydreaming angle is the baggage the film came with in order to get the requisite buzz. By adding daydreaming scenes, the film can properly bill itself as a remake or reboot of a live screen adaptation of a TV show/live comic strip/children's book or whatever it is (technically, it's a remake of a 1947 film adaptation of a short story if you were curious). The daydreaming concept also lends itself to fantasy and action sequences that look good in a trailer.

The story that I suspect Stiller really wanted to tell is that of an office drone reexamining the choices in his life that put him there (although it's definitely curious and slightly counter-thematic that the story gives him what seems like a pretty artsy job in a magazine's photo department). Sure, he might be courting a girl in the process, but "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is a story about a man freeing himself from the conventions of adulthood.

Within this thematic thread, worldly photographer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn) is Stiller's true prize. O'Connell is a man who has successfully absolved himself of adult responsibility. While his being impossible to track down makes for a great plot McGuffin, he can be a pain to work with for those in the real world but that's if you judge him through a real-world lens. The film does not.

Stiller's quest to track down one of O'Connell's lost negatives in order to save his real-world job (Adam Scott deserves credit here for reaching heights in obnoxiousness not reached since "Step Brothers") is where much of the film's screen time lies.

It's along this journey that we get a sense that Walter Mitty (at least this version of him) wasn't always so square. One of the opening scenes clues us into Mitty being familiar with a skateboard, but one of the key character tenets of Mitty is that he was once a punk (with a full mohawk to boot) who was pushed into adulthood too quickly as a teenager after the death of his father. Whether this version of Mitty exists from the original isn't something I can say for sure, but it certainly supports the thesis.

It's also worth noting that the film's technical wizardry is impressively used towards both of the disparate storylines. One of the film's most technically memorable scenes is when a game of soccer against a setting Himalayan backdrop segues into a scene of a man being frisked as seen through an x-ray camera. Until we learn that Mitty has been stopped by airport security, fantasy and reality are fantastically blurred here. Simultaneously, the thematic idea of being in a transitory space between conventional adulthood and childhood is all over this shot.

As for which story is the better one and how this affects the finished product, Stiller gets credit for splitting the middle between the standard fantasy-adventure-romcom and the more meditative angle, There's no short shrift to the relationship between Stiller and the love interest and nothing disappointing about the fantasy sequences.

Thumbs up! 

My Oscar wish list

Dear Oscars,

First off, I'd like to thank you for:
1. Nominating Leonardo DiCaprio
Despite being a three-time Oscar nominee, DiCaprio gets overlooked quite a bit. DiCaprio's role in Wolf of Wall Street is not just another great role indicative of the best actor of his generation (I can't speak from personal experience) but one that has been sparking water cooler discussion as well
2. Nominating Amy Adams and Christian Bale in American Hustle
While I'm not a huge fan of Cooper or Lawrence's performances, Adams and Bale are both phenomenal in their categories. I see Amy Adams in approximately 2-3 films a year (not intentionally. It just so happens she's in everything) and I've never seen these sexy and vulnerable sides to her. Christian Bale completely transforms into his role as well.
3. Snubbing Oprah for Best Supporting Actress
She's a talk show host who doesn't need an acting award. The five people who were nominated in place of her all act for a living and would likely benefit from it more.
4. Nominating guys like Pharell, U2, and Arcade Fire in the music categories
At the Golden Globes, with Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Coldplay, and U2 all being nominated for best original song, we had that category alone having more twitter followers than all the other categories combined. Three of those artists got left off but I won't really miss them. We now have music producer and all-around cool guy Pharrell Williams and Arcade Fire nominated for Oscars in addition to U2. Great to see popular music artists at the Oscars.
5. Selecting nine solid films
This is somewhat subjective but I think this is the first year I can remember where I'm actually excited to see all nine films. I've seen six (seeing a seventh tonight) and have nothing but positive things to say about all of them and the other three look promising as well.


Please:

1. Choose a good host for the Oscars ceremony
This one has already been botched. Ellen DeGeneres is a wonderful personal success story having risen from gay pariah from a less tolerant era to America's favorite talk show host. But that was ten years ago and being gay or lesbian should be no big deal. I'd argue she's no longer the funniest lesbian comedian (Wanda Sykes is) or the most adorable out actress named Ellen (hello Ellen Page) anymore. In other words, we should be at the point where Ellen DeGeneres should be awarded or denied something as prestigious as the host of the world's most viewed television event on the basis of her merits. While she's great at certain things, I don't believe hosting an Oscars telecast is one of them. Her whimsy observational humor consisted barely registered the last time she hosted the Oscars in 2007 and this is even more of a travesty when there are so many gifted comedians who would kill at this gig.

2. Give Bruce Dern a solid chance
If you told me two years ago that Matthew McConaughey-- who has spent fifteen years as a poster boy for acting mediocrity -- would have a string of good roles in 2012 that boosted him to even better roles in 2013 including one that would land him an Oscar, I would have thought you were insane. Before I saw "Dallas Buyers Club", I spent much of this Oscar season thinking McConaughey's winning streak was shameful considering he was such a lousy actor for so long. I now understand what the buzz is about: McConaughey walking away with the Oscar wouldn't be a travesty as it's a capable performance. The thing is Dern also blows you away. Comparing Dern's performance to McConaughey's performance is like apples and oranges but I hope voters are giving Dern a solid consideration. After all, McConaughey's been a great film actor for two years, Dern's been at the top of his game for a period nearly twenty times that long.

3. Allow the performers to sing. Show some decent clips.
There are so many opinions on what works and what doesn't  in the "Oscars." I think most can agree that montages tend to be excessive. Personally, I think a short clip for each film and a film for each performance are most welcome additions. It even becomes somewhat of a parlor game among Oscar buzzers to guess which clips will be shown for which nominees so don't deprive them of that.
The Oscars tend to play with the format for score and song quite a bit. This is a year where we have some great musical artists so not letting them play during the ceremony would be a mistake.
 
4. Don't award Jennifer Lawrence a victory
Not only is she not that good in her role, she just won last year and is only 23 years old. Two-time Oscar winners are a rather elite club: There's no need to let her in prematurely. Of course, the Oscar should be decided on merit but let me point you to that "not that good" part of my argument above.

5. Give the original screenplay to "Her"
There seems to be some sense that David O. Russell is owed something because he's been nominated three of the last four years in the picture and director categories. That's simply not true. Being nominated three times is humongous for someone like David O. Russell who isn't yet idolized in film schools and doesn't have an amazing commercial reputation. We can afford to give the screenplay to the best candidate in this scenario and that would be "Her" by a mile. It's innovative, it's delicate, it's well-paced, and it's both depressing and inspiring. Besides,  Russell didn't even write "American Hustle" the way you saw it on the screen with all the ad-libbing and scenes that were entirely thrown in at the last minute. Russell deserves more credit as a director this year and unfortunately better candidates have that slot locked up.

2013 Best Picture Nominees Update

The Oscar class of 2013 is Her, Captain Phillips, American Hustle, Philomena, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Nebraska, Wolf of Wall Street, and 12 Years a Slave. Here's an updated list of who's appeared in 3 or more Best Picture contenders:

9          Robert De Niro-Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, The Mission, Awakenings, Goodfellas, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle
7          Tom Hanks-Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Green Mile, Toy Story 3, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Captain Phillips

7          Leonardo DiCaprio-Titanic, Gangs of New York, Aviator, Departed, Inception, Django Unchained, Wolf of Wall Street

6          Ed Harris-The Right Stuff, Places in the Heart, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, The Hours, Gravity

6          Brad Pitt-Babel, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Inglourious Basterds, Tree of Life, Moneyball, 12 Years a Slave

6          George Clooney-Thin Red Line, Good Night and Good Luck, Michael Clayton, Up in the Air, Descendants, Gravity

5          Rance Howard-Chinatown, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon, Nebraska

4          Michael Pena-Million Dollar Baby, Crash, Babel, American Hustle

4          Sandra Bullock-Crash, The Blind Side, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Gravity

4          Judi Dench-Room with a View, Shakespeare in Love, Chocolat, Philomena

3          Bruce Dern-Coming Home, Django Unchained, Nebraska

3          Christine Ebersole-Tootsie, Amadeus, Wolf of Wall Street

3          Paul Giamatti-Saving Private Ryan, Sideways, 12 Years a Slave
3          Jonah Hill-Moneyball, Django Unchained, Wolf of Wall Street

3          Amy Adams-Fighter, American Hustle, Her

3          Kyle Chandler-Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Wolf of Wall Street

3          Chris Pratt-Moneyball, Zero Dark Thirty, Her

3          Paul Dano-Little Miss Sunshine, There Will be Blood, 12 Years a Slave

3          Dennis O'Hare-Michael Clayton, Milk, Dallas Buyers Club

Also, if you want to know the past Oscar nominations of this year's Oscar class they are: Coming Home, Deer Hunter, Kramer vs Kramer, French Lieutenant's Wife, Sophie's Choice, Silkwood, Out of Africa, Iron Weed, Evil Eyes, Steel Magnolias, Pretty Woman, Postcards from the Edge, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Bridges of Madison County, Mrs. Brown, Elizabeth, One True Thing, Music of the Heart, Chocolat, Erin Brockovich, Adaptation, Aviator (2), Mrs Henderson Presents, Junebug, Notes on a Scandal (2), Blood Diamond, Devil Wears Prada, I'm Not There, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Doubt (2), Blind Side, The Fighter (2), Winter's Bone, Moneyball, Silver Linings Playbook (2), and The Master
Can you guess which actors earned which nominations?

I've seen four of these films so far and find them all innovative enough to merit the title "Best Picture Nominee." My capsule reviews on them:
 
American Hustle: American Hustle is a film that's suave and stylized while simultaneously having some fun (particularly with Irving's hair) deglamorizing itself.

Some might complain that the plot is convoluted, but I found the plot to be a red herring to explore more complex themes about identity, transience, and the pursuit of wealth. The fact that Bradley Cooper's character was constantly changing his game plan and ultimately didn't really know what he was after (which brought about his doom) was a telling indication of that theory.

With a plot that was secondary to the complex web of betrayal and ambition, the film was the perfect excuse for its cast to flex their acting chops, and the film earning four acting nominations (David O. Russell films amassing 11 acting nominations in a 4-year period, which I'm pretty sure is a record) is no small coincidence. Amy Adams and Christian Bale give career best performances.

Whether the film is thematically muddled or has any sort of grand message anchoring it are certainly up for debate, but that's a debate I see great merit in: I easily found the film to be the most thought-provoking of the year.

Captain Phillips: Paul Greengrass, Tom Hanks, and the production rights for the most recent topical news story of heroism seems like a can't-miss proposition and there's nothing disappointing about it. The film doesn't necessarily overtly deliver on its ambitions (if you believe whomever wrote Sony Pictures' press release) to be a "complex portrait of the myriad effects of globalization" with a couple conversations about the alternative lives the pirates could have chosen that didn't really resonate. Still, the film is an effective and emotionally resonant thriller with what seems like  painstaking authenticity and that's pretty darn good. A major asset of this film is the casting of four Somalis with no prior acting experience to play the four Somali pirates which terrorized the real Captain Phillips. Barkhad Abdi deservedly got nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the head pirate. The story's pacing is also ideal for a docudrama of this sort with very little unnecessary back story and a near-perfect stopping point.

Gravity: I expected to see Gravity as the Apollo 13 of our era: A story about NASA and space exploration that inspired a new wave of kids to go to Space Camp. The more I think about it, the more I see Gravity as the Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey come to mind: A movie-going experience that pushed the capacities of the medium technologically to the point where it was  something audiences had simply never seen before. In comparison to the last big attempt to revolutionize 3-D cinema-going, Avatar, Cuaron showed you don't need to create an elaborate visual world. Cuaron's film is minimal like 12 Angry Men or Cast Away set in space. The only other on-screen actor, George Clooney mercifully (as he is one of my least favorite actors) disappears 30 minutes into the film and it's just Sandra Bullock and the void of space to fill in the time. The film also packs emotional punch in Bullock's arc that one might not expect out of a film in this format.

Her: Some of the best comic performances (Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot, Christopher Guest, David Cross in Arrested Development, Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove) come from people playing their parts as seriously as possible. In that same vein, Spike Jonze chose to play a rather absurd premise for a love story as straight as possible and it works really well. The love story is set in what first appears to be a depressing, almost dystopic, future where technology has taken over people's lives, but the excitement of the film is how this satirical overlay doesn't take away from the love story. The first twenty minutes of the film show Ted (Joaquin Phoenix) as a depressed and lonely figure with strong suggestions that his overreliance on technology is what's keeping him from interacting with humans. The film, curiously, seems to ease up on this pretense as Ted's romance with his phone is set alongside his coworker's romance with a fellow human and a blind date (Olivia Wilde) that seems to at least have the potential to go well (it ultimately doesn't). Eventually, it's revealed that Ted isn't locked in a hellish world where his only hope for companionship is a machine, which is what makes the love story worthwhile: Ted doesn't have to be with a machine but he slowly is won over by her.