The Oscar dreams for Ben Stiller’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” may have dimmed a bit after the fantasy comedy had its world premiere over the weekend at the New York Film Festival.
“I want to thank the Film Society of Lincoln Center for having the courage to show a Ben Stiller movie,” quipped Stiller before the film showed at Alice Tully Hall. “I grew up 20 blocks away. And thanks to you, I’m finally allowed inside the building.”
There was a mixed critical reception, though, for the second film inspired by humorist James Thurber’s famous 1939 short story. This one stars Stiller, Kristen Wiig and a briefly seen Shirley MacLaine, following an earlier musical version in 1947 with Danny Kaye as Mitty.
“The film’s pleasures may be too minor key and its pace too meandering to conquer the mainstream,” said a reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter. “But audiences willing to tune in to its blend of surreal fantasy, droll comedy and poignancy will be rewarded.”
In Stiller’s film, Mitty is a milquetoast photo editor at a present-day Life Magazine (which ceased monthly publication in 2000) too shy to talk to single mom and co-worker Wiig who he has a crush on. But he frequently pictures himself as a hero in daydreams, which makes him the target of a corporate shark (Adam Scott) assigned to downsize the magazine to a web-only operation.
When Mitty loses an image designated for the cover of the last print edition, his character (who’s never been out of the country) abruptly changes and has real-life adventures in Greenland, Iceland and Afghanistan while searching for the gonzo photographer (Sean Penn in a one-scene cameo) who took it.
It’s beautifully photographed movie and has some good sequences though somewhat earnest and schmaltzy. Never really establishing a consistent tone, it’s relatively slow-moving and light on laughs — though that seemed to bother some critics who saw it earlier than the day more than the evening crowd at Lincoln Center who gave Stiller a standing ovation.
In the works for 19 years with Jim Carrey, Owen Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen slated to play Mitty at various points, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” opens nationally on Christmas Day.
“A lot of people think studios are bad and these faceless greedy corporations. And they are,” Stiller said to audience laughter. “But there also people there who run them. The people at the studio decided to take a chance on this movie.”