Rhymes With Mitty

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

So it's a FUCK YOU, IT'S JANUARY! movie [http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewstclair/8337067711/?rb=1], but released in December?

Is it bad I can't tell if that is a parody of those movies or a legitimate movie poster?

2013-1984 = 29

If Ben Stiller is 48 years old that means he was at least 17. That's okay isn't it? (Just being a maths pedant)

We might be operating under the special actor age rules where you can play a freshmen in high school well into your mid-thirties.

OT: So, it's a movie that is desperately trying to be good, but is hamstrung by pretty much everything else about it. Well, at least they tried. I mean, I'm still not going to see it (there's a Keanu Reeves movie with FUCKING DRAGONS AND SAMURAI [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1335975/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_3] that got released this week), but it's nice to see a production team try to put some effort into polishing a movie into something better, even if they fail.

Actually, that pretty much sums up a lot of the movie this year: production teams trying to make something shitty into something better and failing, sometimes miserably. Star Trek tried to make itself about the dangerous temptation of militarization. Superman tried to give the character a back story that went beyond "he just is that good of a guy." Anchorman 2 tried to point out the obvious nature of modern cable news as pandering to the lowest common denominator. The Worlds End tackled the psychosis of nostalgia for a time that no longer exists. Machete 2 was... okay, that was a devolution into standard Robert Rodregez fair but you see what I'm getting at.

This is not going to be a highlight year unless your parent company is Disney, but it is a time where the big failures at least tried to go beyond flash, even if they failed in their execution.

 

[Azahul]

So, it's essentially 'it was all a dream' (which is a trope that almost never works well IMO), stretched into an entire film?

Yeah... no.

That only really makes for about the first third of the movie. The rest of the movie is the character actually living his dreams.

Personally, I actually really liked this film. I'm a daydreamer, but I'm also someone fortunate enough to actually travel and get to do amazing, out-of-this-world things from time to time. There weren't any spectacularly funny jokes, but I wasn't watching it as a comedy I guess. Yeah, the Life Magazine metaphor wasn't exactly subtle, but it seemed like a pretty accurate one from where I was sitting.

As for the Papa Johns thing, I'm pretty sure the movie starts on Mitty's 42nd birthday. Mitty would have been 13 when it first opened, by Bob's own numbers. That's... completely plausible.

I also didn't really notice the product placement, aside from the eHarmony bits (and even then, I felt more like the movie was showing me an eHarmony employee trying to sell a character on the service, rather than the movie trying to sell me on it). Part of that might be because I don't think I've ever seen a Papa John's in my life. I actually just assumed it was a fictional fast food place through the entire movie.

 

[BrotherRool]

2013-1984 = 29

If Ben Stiller is 48 years old that means he was at least 17. That's okay isn't it? (Just being a maths pedant)

Ben Stiller's age doesn't matter. How many twenty-something actors play high school students in movies? Mitty couldn't be 40 with stiller playing him?

Yeah definitely, and if he were playing someone who was 40 (which really isn't much of a stretch right?) then that means he there would have been Papa John's around since he was 9. Which is definitely enough for him to work there.

I think it's one of those things which sounds like an amusing impossibility but actually the numbers are fine

 

[Sovereignty]

I am so in disagreement with Bob on this movie it's not even funny. I saw it and was instantly drawn in. While he said it was a pretty movie (It really is), I have no idea how he came away from it with no clear understanding of the purpose of the cutaway day-dream sequences. Each one had a distinct message that it seemed (to me) to try to convey. The fight scene in particular was showing how Walter felt persecuted and judged, and wanted nothing more than to confront his *bully*.

The scene ends, and Walter's boss gets off the elevator once again shrugging off how Mitty spaced out. It really conveyed how he didn't handle the issues before him. Instead he simply drifted off, played out the scenario, and returned to the real world in time to have missed an opportunity to fix or do something in his life.

I thought it was a gem, and I honestly went into the film expecting it to be mediocre.


I also thought that product placement was sort of a running gag in the film. It was a clever way throw in product placement but it actually served a purpose to the story. There is a wide stretch in the movie where you can't be 100% sure if the movie is ACTUALLY in the *real* world or in Mitty's day dreams. The whole Papa Johns/E-harmony gags only serve to further muddle up what I assume was an intended attempt to make the viewer guess.

 

[Tim Daniels]

One of the opening moments of the film has Mitty receive a birthday cake from his sister, where it is stated he's 42. He got a job at 17 at Papa John's after his father's death, and ended up at Life sometime when he was 26 (16 year employment). I don't recall if the movie's date was specified, since Life went digital in 2000, but it feels like it was meant to be set in the present or after 2010 with Life's switch to digital intentionally historically inaccurate for narrative purposes. Numbers are good, or good enough. Odd thing to fault the movie for. Why does Ben Stiller's age matter for the *character*?

I enjoyed the film. There's my bias.

I found Bob's assessment of the Mitty character off. My view is that Mitty's motivation to get the negative is pride in his work ("I've worked here 16 years and never lost a print."). He's got nothing to do with micromanaging the transition -- he's after that one negative in order to *do his job* as a negative asset manager (do I detect a subtle cleverness in Mitty's job as a manager of negative assets?) It's the undercurrents of the Mitty character that are most interesting, not the superficial (and ultimately, as Bob emphasizes, pointless, which is the point) daydreams. But, as the film progresses, the unrealistic distortions he has involving his love interest are the very thing that pushes him into courage. The daydreams turn from missing out on living in favor of self-aggrandizing fantasy into motivating energy to live until Mitty grows to the point where he doesn't need the fantasies anymore.

Yeah, the e-harmony & Cinnabon bits were over-the-top, took me out of the movie. I looked past it, saw them as the hamfisted narrative tools that they were (Cinnabon after being in Afghanistan and the Himalayas for several weeks followed by 17 hours in detainment does sound pretty awesome, though, and that's a food you'd find in an airport, but forgive my rationalizations). I hardly noticed the other product placement or held it against the point of the film.

Where's the praise for the small, beautiful moments in the film? There was no mention of when Mitty finally catches up to O'Connell. Scenes with his mother were also pretty good to reinforce the film's message.

The emotional cues that the movie goes after hit some fine notes, but I think you'd have to be able to connect and empathize with Mitty's central conflict to get the most out of it.

It's no world-class complex film by any means, but it has a beautiful simplicity with some subtle nuance to it that was refreshing after so much dark/gritty. The trailer for my presentation had a dark/gritty Noah's Ark film starring Russell Crowe. Pass.

Edit:

Each one had a distinct message that it seemed (to me) to try to convey. The fight scene in particular was showing how Walter felt persecuted and judged, and wanted nothing more than to confront his *bully*.

Thought this was more accurate than pointless-is-the-point -- daydreams were an allegorical representation of Mitty's feelings in a particular moment. But at the same time "It really conveyed how he didn't handle the issues before him."

 

[ColaWarVeteran]

Movies like this are the kind that make me reevaluate my life and make me believe I should be doing something more with it. But then again I also have a boring, humdrum job that isn't very fulfilling and leaves me with a lot of time to think. I don't know, maybe Bob's just not the kind of guy to want more out of life.

Everyone seems to be reevaluating his life nowadays.... Which imo is proof of the uselessness of such idea (is people starting to do something new or different nowadays?).
Do one of two, either live your life as it is, or do something.... Dont reevaluate your life; that shit is useless

Well, I'm not big on jumping into things without a plan. I want to travel but I'm not just going to back up my bags and go. I want some idea of what I'm doing and going to do first.

 

[sinsfire]

So its Sidekicks but with adults?

Ben Stiller is Johnathan Brandis and what, Sean Penn is Chuck Norris?

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Movies like this are the kind that make me reevaluate my life and make me believe I should be doing something more with it. But then again I also have a boring, humdrum job that isn't very fulfilling and leaves me with a lot of time to think. I don't know, maybe Bob's just not the kind of guy to want more out of life.

And... so that's best achieved by juvenile fantasies and daydreaming? I'm not really following your logic here.

From Bob's description of the movie, the message seems to be "fantasise about being cool while consuming brand-name products," rather than "do more with your life."

 

[Azahul]

Movies like this are the kind that make me reevaluate my life and make me believe I should be doing something more with it. But then again I also have a boring, humdrum job that isn't very fulfilling and leaves me with a lot of time to think. I don't know, maybe Bob's just not the kind of guy to want more out of life.

And... so that's best achieved by juvenile fantasies and daydreaming? I'm not really following your logic here.

From Bob's description of the movie, the message seems to be "fantasise about being cool while consuming brand-name products," rather than "do more with your life."

And that's why this review shouldn't be taken as an indication of what the movie's message is. Because it's the exact opposite of that.

The fantasising happens in the first bit of the movie. Each time Mitty goes off on one of his fantasies, he misses something that he could have done in real life. The rest of the movie is him actually living his life and experiencing something amazing. The movie's message is not to fantasise about being cool, it's to stop fantasising and live.

 

[putowtin]

Can't wait to go see Her, looks promising.

I am disappointed that Ben Stiller's directorial debut wasn't that great, this could've been something interesting, but sadly Mitty sits in they grey area between good and bad movies.

as already noted this is not his first go in the directors chair, it's just his worst (IMO)

 

[RJ Dalton]

I'd be disappointed if I'd actually expected anything resembling quality from this. Of course, I can't really say "I called it" because I tend to assume everything is shit until it proves itself otherwise. Best defense against disappointment.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

I didn't even know E-harmony was a real thing until after I saw it so I guess I missed out on that one. It wouldn't be my favorite film but I think Bob is being overly harsh. Stiller's humour works for the most part. It's got more heart and craft than most films in it's genre and it is beautifully shot. There are some nice moments in the film and if you drop the cynical attitude it's actually a pretty uplifting film you can take your mom to. It's got set-ups and pay offs and nothing really feels wasted. Anyone who has taken screenwriting 101 won't be surprised by any of the twists. It's a charming film that deserves to exist is all I can say. Not a huge fan of it, but I think Bob is being overly critical and obviously applying personal beliefs I don't seem to share.

 

[Quantum Glass]

...I don't know if I agree with that title. It didn't seem that gritty to /me./

 

[strumbore]

It's hard to take critcs' product placement gripes seriously when they're known to get their panties in a twist if an actor drinks a coke.

 

[Ruisu]

I really don't agree with how bob says the e-harmony plot in this movie is a issue because product placement. That is THE BEST kind of product placement we could have in a movie, and the way it just fits in it is perfect. As someone who works on advertising myself, I could not appreciate this part of the movie more. I hope we see more of this in more movies. It cuts on the "annoying" ads that play before the movie (or before an youtube video for example), and don't get in the way of the story itself.

And I just loved the rest of the entire movie. Just so effin beautiful.

 

[Sofox]

I totally disagree with Bob's review.

In fact, I'd compare Bob's dislike of this movie, with Ebert's dislike of Fight Club. In both cases, the critics are doing what they love as their jobs, and totally don't get how the movie would appeal to people who see their jobs more as something they're stuck in rather then one they came to from following their passion.

I'm not saying the movie is perfect, but it's a beautiful and escapist view of a guy stuck in a job who find himself getting out in the world and living his dreams, following what he feels is important in life. I enjoyed the movie for its message, and also being funny too.

Minor spoilers below as I rebut some of Bob's points:

The daydreams, including the Armstrong ones, show what Mitty is like when his ID truely manifests. What he WANTS to happen, how he WANTS people to treat him. The one with his boss and Armstrong demonstrates his desire for confrontation and ability to hold his own but he's snapped back to reality by the boss overtly demonstrating that he's the one in charge, and Mitty doing nothing to respond. By the end of the movie, Mitty speaks to the boss on his own terms, showing how he's changed. The frequency of the daydreams over the course of the movie is also important to the plot, but that's another subject.

Finally, the meeting up with the guy at the end. I thought that was just a great example of how there's always a human being at the other end of the phone, and just because we have our adventures doesn't mean we should write them up.