The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Is Massively Underrated

Critics hated the Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

It has an abysmal 52% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and reviewers said that it “fails to back up its grand designs with enough substance to anchor the spectacle.”

I disagree vehemently.

I read a bunch of critic reviews and I’m baffled at some of the things they wrote.

Peter Bradshaw at the Guardian said: “In striving so earnestly for a redemptive and genuinely heroic happy ending, Stiller’s movie jettisons the original’s lightness.”

See this confuses me. 

Is Walter Mitty a hollow film with no substance? Or is it so heavy that “lightness” can’t be found?

Here’s a review that made me mad.

“Our identification gives way to envy, and [Mitty] is another one of those enchanted people the rest of us can only dream of becoming.”

A.O. Scott at the New York Times wrote that.

I’m sorry A.O. that you identify so much with this character up until the point where he actually, I don’t know, does something cool. Then you get jealous of this character for doing something you’d never do in your own boring life.

That is just the stupidest take of all time — though I will give him brownie points for being honest.

I loved this movie and most audience members agree with me that it was a good film.

In this article I’ll make the case that Walter Mitty is an underrated movie. I’ll go over what I liked about the movie, disliked, and break apart some of the stupid things movie critics wrote in response to it. 

If you want to watch the video version of this article, here it is for your viewing pleasure. :) 

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Why I Disliked This Movie

This movie centers around Walter Mitty, a guy who’s life is so boring that he daydreams incessantly. 

After the magazine he works for gets acquired and shut down, the new bosses want the final cover ASAP, which is typically supplied by photographer Sean O’Connell.

Sean sends the photo to Walter by mail, but for some reason Walter can’t find it in the package. So, he sets off to find Sean, who’s last known location was Iceland. 

What ensues is a fun adventure through beautiful Icelandic landscapes, Afghanistan, and the Himalayas, as Walter rediscovers the adventurous spirit he left behind long ago.

Make no mistake — I don’t think Walter Mitty is some masterpiece of a film that everyone needs to put in their top 50 films list. 

But I do think it was judged too harshly, and not nearly as bad as many said it was. 

For one, let’s talk about the cheesiness. The part where Sean decides to go to Iceland with Wake Up by Arcade Fire playing in the background was kind of cheesy.

What makes it worse is that in the scene, Life’s motto is plastered on the environment surrounding Walter and on the runway itself. 

Mitty can be a little in your face about the messages it’s trying to impart about how to live a good life and it can be a little “preachy” — especially in the scene where Walter finally meets Sean on the mountainside.

Another thing I didn’t love about this movie is that the daydreams get a little ridiculous. I didn’t think we needed to have a whole Benjamin Button scene in here, did you?

The daydreams in the first half of the movie are so different tonally from the more meaningful scenes at the end of the film, which is where this movie really shines anyway.

Whenever I watch Walter Mitty, I always feel like I have to get through the whimsical first half of the movie to get to the more meaningful stuff later on. But the meaningful stuff is so worth it that I overlook the ridiculousness.

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What I Loved About This Movie

Let’s talk about what I loved.

Walter is played brilliantly by Ben Stiller, and I think this is most of the reason why I love this movie.

For some reason I feel that Ben personally connects with both sides to this character. The shy, socially awkward Walter and the fun, go-getter adventurous Walter. 

In an interview to promote the film, someone asked Ben if he relates to the character of Walter Mitty.

“Yeah, of course,” Stiller said. 

Ben, in this period of his life, was also trying to reinvent himself by getting into directing more than acting.

“I love acting, but what I love is the freedom you have as a director to tell all different kinds of stories,” Stiller says, “where as an actor, to a certain extent you’re just limited to who you are and what you get cast in.”

I could feel, through the screen, Stiller’s earnestness and personal connection to this character, as he was going through his own transition in life. I wasn’t expecting to see that from the dude who played the eccentric owner of Globo Gym in Dodgeball.

I suppose I enjoy watching people reinvent themselves. 

I think, in 2013, I also connected so deeply to the messages of the film. 

I was 20 years old and bored with my life at college. I wanted to get out and see the world.

Six months after I saw Walter Mitty, I won an internship at Disney World, working there for 8 months. I made friends from around the world.

It was one of the best times of my life, and this movie, perhaps, helped inspire that adventurous spirit in me.

I think Sean Penn’s character is so important to this movie as well. We only hear him speaking for about 5 minutes of the film’s runtime, but we get the sense immediately that this guy who’s seen every bit of the world knows the secret to living a great life.

And he delivers in this final scene that’s both acted and directed perfectly, with zero background music, and only the sound of the wind passing by.

The thing I connected with the most, though, is this film’s message to get off your cell phones, computers, and cameras to go experience and live life.

When the Snow Leopard appears for Sean and Walter, Walter asks him if he’s ever going to take the picture of it.

Sean says “Sometimes I don’t. If I like a moment, for me, personally, I don’t like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it.”

That’s crazy to hear from an actual photographer, right?

But throughout the movie we keep getting these subtle hints that technology might just be ruining our lives. The new brass at life magazine wants to go digital. The eHarmony guy tells Walter to maybe go talk to Cheryl instead of sending her winks online. Sean sends photographs taken on film — the old way — instead of on digital. 

This film is no doubt telling us to stop taking photos of everything and to live life in reality instead of on our phones, and I’m here for it.

Knowing that this movie came out a whopping 10 years ago, and things have only gotten worse, make it eerily prophetic.

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What Critics Said That I Disagree With

Here’s a couple things critics said that I don’t agree with.

Linda Barnard writes:

“If you love the Zoolander star and don’t mind that this movie generates the occasional weak smile rather than huge laughs, then this self-indulgent, CGI-heavy Stiller world tour will make you happy indeed.”

I’m sorry — I didn’t like this movie for the laughs. I didn’t care about the comedy in this film. I enjoyed the scene where Ben longboards down a beautiful stretch of Icelandic road to get to the next town. I enjoyed the conversation Ben has with Sean on the mountainside. I enjoyed the message to get out there and live life.

It’s almost like the critics are judging this as a straight comedy when in reality it’s a comedy/drama. One common belief among critics is that this film stumbles in the second half when Walter finally goes on his adventure.

Ben Kenigsburg writes:

“It’s once the daydreams stop and Mitty jets off to Greenland in search of Penn’s itinerant shutterbug (and “actual” adventure) that the film takes an unexpected turn for the dull.”

What, so you liked the Benjamin Button scene better, Ben?

Did you just want a full movie of old Ben Stiller sitting on a porch with Kristen Wiig and more Stretch Armstrong set pieces?

I thought all that was ridiculous and after a while it’s like “Yeah, we get it, the dude daydreams a lot, but this isn’t driving the story forward in any meaningful way.”

For me, the second half of the film is where it really becomes something special.

Who knew that watching a guy have fun could be so interesting?

It’s almost like the Hollywood critic crowd didn’t want something so upbeat, positive, and inspirational.

Cormac O’Brien writes: 

“Ben Stiller’s latest directorial effort offers the balmy reassurance of a ‘Hang in There, Kitty’ poster.”

Ann Hornaday writes:

“The unevenness of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and Stiller’s recessive characterization of the title character, keep it from being an all-out crowd-pleaser.”

In the original short story, Walter Mitty doesn’t go off on any adventure, and by the end he’s imagining himself standing up against a wall facing a firing squad.

Charming.

Yeah, Ann’s right, they should’ve made THAT movie instead.

I thought it was great to give Walter’s character a chance at living a dream life instead of just imagining one. It’s a much better message that empowers the viewer instead of depressing them, and in a world full of people who are so scared to get out and chase their dreams, this message is sorely needed.

My sister has a neighbor in South Carolina who’s literally never left his state. He’s 60. My grandfather couldn’t even tell anybody he loved them. Too scared. 

For some reason it seems like nowadays the Hollywood crowd is more interested in being dark, gritty, and “real” rather than positive, uplifting, and fun. 

And whenever someone tries to remind us all that, yeah, you can chase your dreams and accomplish them, they far too often get mocked by reviewers.

Hollywood seems full of people who don’t have any stomach for a good old-fashioned uplifting drama.

A.O. Scott at the New York Times wrote “Our identification gives way to envy, and [Mitty] is another one of those enchanted people the rest of us can only dream of becoming.”

Bro. I’m sorry that you don’t have the groin to chase your dreams. Of course we all can’t be Walter Mitty who sees a Snow Leopard, but we can be the man or woman who decides to take action today on living their dream life, and gets closer and closer with time.

It’s absolutely possible. 

I think this movie unfortunately suffers for how uplifting and positive it is. A lot of people don’t want to be told that they have the power to realize their dreams, because then there’s no built-in excuse explaining why they haven’t accomplished it yet.

They can just blame billionaires and politicians for the fact that they’re stuck living a sup-optimal life. 

No, A.O. Scott of the New York Times who’s probably making more than 6-figures a year — you can absolutely do everything Walter did in this film and more. You’re just too much of a coward to admit it.

So, why is this film so underrated?

I think the biggest reason is because critics got jealous of the main character. They found it all too easy to crap on the message of the movie, knowing if they continue believing that living your dream life isn’t possible, they wouldn’t have to face the depressing fact that they’ve done little with theirs.