The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Expectations:

The very first time that I saw the trailer for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, I was hooked! And, there were only like three word in the entire trailer! Although I am a fairly straightforward and blunt, I do enjoy self-reflective films, and Walter Mitty promised an amazing opportunity to look at life from a different perspective. I know I have written, in the past, about the lack of imagination in the modern world and how that lack of imagination has tightened the gap between the fantasy that is found in film and the fantasy that is found in reality. What was once thought to be imaginative and unreachable is now a part of our everyday life, making it hard to see a fictitious story without any peak at reality. With the day dreaming of Walter Mitty, played by Ben Stiller, I was extremely hopeful that I would be able to grasp at and appreciate imagination for a couple of hours, regardless of how creatively and imaginatively challenged I may truly be...

Plot:

A number of the mixed reviews that I have seen for Walter Mitty were critical of the film's inability to create a great story to go along with the obvious theme of complacency that Walter struggles with. In my opinion, the simplicity of the story allowed the audience an opportunity to truly soak in the message of the film, which encourages us to go out and do, rather than live in a constant state of "what if." Although many folks may not have the same issues as Walter, I think the story is certainly entertaining and relatable, to say the least. On a personal note, to say that Walter Mitty was relatable would probably be an understatement. Whether or not it's obvious, deep inside me, there is a lot of ambition, and, because I tend to dwell on logic and money, that ambition rarely manifests itself in my life. Going in to the film, I expected Walter to be some sort of social outcast who feared human interaction. Instead, he was just a quiet guy who had a lot on his mind. Basically, he was Tanner Jones in a movie.

Characters:

I know that I already spent a lot of time of time talking about Walter Mitty, so I will try to avoid dwelling on Ben Stiller's character too much. However, Walter was the complete and total focal point of the film, so he deserves the attention. Stiller's performance was good, but the character carried the film further than Stiller's acting, by far.

Negative:

While she may be ridiculously crazy, Kathryn Hahn is quickly becoming one of my favorite comedic actresses, and I have come to expect her to be hilarious in every single film or TV show in which she might appear. Although the story was about Walter, I though Hahn should have been given a bit more time to shine, as Walter's sister, Odessa. I would have liked it better if Walter's mom, played by Shirley MacLaine, had been removed from the picture and Walter was more involved in caring for Odessa. But, you can't always get what you want! Additionally, I didn't care for Adam Scott's performance as businessman Ted Hendricks. The rude nature of Hendricks was not at all typical for Scott, and it just didn't sit right with me.

Positives:

The over-zealous eHarmony guy, Todd Maher, (played by Patton Oswalt) was easily the greatest minor character in the film. I wasn't expecting quite as many laughs as came along with this movie, and many of those were brought out by Todd, who helped move along Walter's relationship attempts with Kristen Wiig's Cheryl Melhoff. I really enjoyed the relationship between Walter and Cheryl, although it was over-dramatized a bit. Without Wiig's normalcy, I don't know if Walter would have been able to come across as relatable as he did, which was my favorite aspect of the film.

Conclusion:

Over the past few weeks, my post-trailer optimism for Walter Mitty had begun to fade. After hearing mixed reviews and seeing the vague trailer over and over and over, my high expectations became mediocre. Luckily, the film was able to reach my originally high expectations and deliver the self-reflective moments that I truly love. Walter's imagination wasn't quite as bold as I had anticipated, but that just made the movie even better, to me. In fact, I could actually see myself daydreaming in the same way that Walter did (minus the blanking out). This year has contained very few films that I will be able to watch over and over, but I think The Secret Life of Walter Mitty may be this year's "Most Likely to Stay On Repeat," much like 2012's The Perks of Being a Wallflower and 2011's Midnight in Paris. However, it could be quickly dethroned by Inside Llewyn Davis, if that film would just hurry up and get to Hattiesburg! Regardless, Walter Mitty was a pleasant surprise that I would certainly encourage each and every reader to check out. Plus, it's family friendly, so grandma can come too! Plus, the music was amazing (had to get that plug in there)! I give The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 3.68 out 5 stars. 

Our Idiot Brother

Expectations:
I personally think that Paul Rudd is a brilliant actor, just not a comedic actor. I don't understand why guys like him and Jason Bateman, for example, waste their talent in comedies. Rudd and Bateman always play the normal guy alongside the stupid, funny guys. When you aren't funny, you shouldn't be in a comedy, period. With that being said, I really thought this might be a role that Rudd would use to break out of his normal guy spell. Any title that contains the word "idiot" certainly has potential to contain one goofy character, and this time it was supposed to be Rudd. I didn't expect too much with the movie, but I missed the movies dearly so I needed something to watch this weekend.

Plot:
In the opening scene, Ned (Paul Rudd) is arrested for selling weed to a police officer, which is certainly an idiotic thing to do. You are then taken to the day he gets out of jail several months later. Then you find out what is going on in one of his sister's lives. Then the next sister. Then the next sister. Then him. Then all of them together. Then one sister. Then one sister. What I'm trying to show is that the plot was way WAY too busy early on. Eventually, each of the sister's lives are influenced by Ned in a negative way. This really was a good way to show how Ned could easily screw things up, but the plot as a whole lacked laughs. Don't get me wrong, there were funny parts, but I just didn't feel like the movie was meant to be funny. It turned out to be more about family, which is a great thing. It just wasn't what I expected.

Characters:
Of course the main character was Ned, but he didn't really have enough of the movie's focus, in my opinion. The sisters, Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), and Liz (Emily Mortimer), really were the focus of the movie. Each sister had her own little plot, which stole from Ned's ability to be the focus of the film. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it does in my head. Ned's biggest problem was that he was too nice, a result of his living at a peaceful, hippy, dope-smoking farm. While he did make dumb decisions and do funny things, I was expecting him to be completely oblivious to the world around him. It turned out that he made the world just a little bit better with his idiocy. He just didn't seem quite dumb enough for me.

Best Character: Billy, played by T.J. Miller (She's Out of My League), was probably the funniest character in the movie. He was one of the guys who lived on the hippy farm where Ned originally lived. I really thought that Rudd's character was going to be more like Miller's. The movie probably would have been better if Billy were the main character rather than Ned.

Worst Character: Jeremy, played by Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation), was the only real mismatch in the plot. As I said, each sister had their own plot, but Jeremy really gave Miranda a second plot as her love interest. He was funny, but I just didn't see why he was necessary.

Conclusion:
I thought that maybe, just maybe, Rudd might be a bit goofier than normal and make this movie funny. While this was not really the case, the movie didn't turn out as bad as you might expect. The story really showed how important family is to everyone, including the idiots. It really made for a nice story, just not the one I was expecting. In my opinion, the movie really should have been called "My Three Idiot Sisters," but I don't get to choose. The cast was very good, and there was only the one out of place character, as mentioned above. Paul Rudd remains unfunny, as I give Our Idiot Brother 2.39 out of 5 stars.