Beware the personal project. It skews the decision-making process and clouds judgement. Barry Levinson undid all the good work of Diner, Good Morning, Vietnam, and Rain Man with the rambling 'personal project' Toys. Remember Toys? Rob Reiner's sterling run of fine movies came unstuck in 1994 with 'personal project' North. Anyone see North? And of course there is Troy McClure's The Contrabulous Fabtraption of Professor Hufnagel.
Into this mix comes Ben Stiller's 'personal project', which has its own elongated development hell story. A change in tone for Stiller, this adaptation of James Thurber's short story is his attempt to be taken seriously, trimming back the wackiness of Zoolander and Tropic Thunder in favour of heart. The result is a mixed bag but Stiller might get what he wants re seriousness, mooted Zoolander sequel aside.
Stiller plays the button-down Walter Mitty, a photo editor at Life magazine. A day dreamer who 'zones out' to imagine himself as a fire-fighting, globe-trotting, sensitive poet type - anything that might impress new co-worker Kristen Wiig - Mitty's comfortable life is turned inside out when the image for the cover of Life's last issue goes missing. Embarking on an adventure to track down the elusive photographer (Penn) and secure the lost picture, Mitty stumbles into the adventures he has only daydreamed about...
Stiller keeps things low key, allowing Steve Conrad's (The Pursuit Of Happyness) script to ramble about. Sometimes that loose approach works - it allows Stiller to skateboard across a beautiful Icelandic landscape and offer up a nice montage set to Arcade Fire ' and sometimes less so ' the episodic nature lacks a big emotional climactic oomph. It's a 'nice movie' full of 'nice ideas' and, for the most part, 'nice people' but it never makes you feel anything. Stiller is fine, Kristin Wiig is asked to do little, and Adam Scott's smarmy executive (think Die Hard’s Ellis by way of Will Ferrell) boasts a wonderfully punchable beard. Penn's superhero photographer is merely an extended cameo.
A little more emotional engagement from Stiller and ... Mitty might have been a better movie but it's still a step up from the Levinson/Reiner missteps. And for the record clambering into a tiny helicopter piloted by a drunken blaggard as a storm approaches is not adventurous - that's just stupid.