“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”

Rated PG for some crude comments, language and action violence.

I really did not want to see this movie. The trailers gave away the secret: Walter Mitty, ignored by all, comes out of his secret world and travels the world becoming what he was not. This version of the short story classic by James Thurber, sends, I think, the implausible message that anybody, even a Nobody, can become a Somebody. James Thurber must be spinning in his grave. The point of Walter Mitty is that he never becomes a Somebody, he is only a Somebody in his imagination. But, no, Hollywood can’t have that. Mitty must experience a transformation and become a “hero” because why make a movie about the average Joe who never does anything other than dream himself out of the doldrums … as a release from a nagging wife or a shrewish wife or a domineering mother? Ben Stiller takes Walter MItty and contorts him into a nebbish unappreciated man who works for Life magazine — which is about to close and become an online publication. (I will resist mentioning how this alternate universe hurts my brain.) A famous adventuring photojournalist (Sean Penn) sends the photo destined to be the last cover of the print version of the aforementioned Life but Mitty and his assistant can’t find it. So, he dashes out — very un-mitty-esquely — a-globetrotting to retrieve it. Of course, there is a woman motivating him (Kristin Wiig). Frankly there is an absence of chemistry between the two, which makes me unsympathetic about his sojourn or his secret or public life. It is an amusing film if one pretends to be totally ignorant of the original story and care not if it is blasphemous. But in my opinion, Walter Mitty should remain Walter Mitty.  Mr. Stiller is one-dimensional and should know better. If he wanted to play it straight, he should have played Mitty as Mitty and he may have gotten away from his resume of schlock comedy and displayed something worthy of serious consideration. Pity.

 

“The Wolf of Wall Street”

Rated R for sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence.

 

Back in the day, there were pirates and then there were mobsters. Both were trifling amateurs compared to the thieves of Wall Street who steal from everybody to give to themselves. I don’t mean to indict all of Wall Street but I would advise the profession it ought to self-police because they have a serious PR problem.

Jordan Belfort exists. He used the stock market to scam millions out of regular people, particularly in penny stock. I remember contributing $700 to that particular sucker’s game.  I was not alone. Belfort used all kinds of legal and illegal methods to steal billions of dollars from investors to fuel his decadent lifestyle of hookers, drugs, yachts, helicopters, cars and mansions: hedonism on a level that would have made the Roman Caesars envious.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Leonardo DiCaprio playing Belfort (I meant to type that. It is not a typo. I am not sure if Leonardo DiCaprio can play anybody other than DiCaprio playing a part. I look forward to the day, when he stops being DiCaprio and really transforms into someone that isn’t Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor.) His band of fellow thieves is, however, more compelling cinematically and kept me mesmerized like I am when I pass a particularly grisly accident. The whole experience is absorbing and yet horrifying. Where is our moral indignation while we wallow in their vulgar bacchanals?

One who goes to see this movie needs to understand that the characters portrayed are amoral crooks of the lowest order. By going to see the film, we get to live their lascivious lives vicariously; a really guilty pleasure indeed.  It is told from Belfort’s perpetrator’s point of view and it seems he feels no guilt about his victims. He is the centerfold of the Me Generation. He takes what he can and cares nothing about the consequences of his actions on others. Are we dragged down with him and care not for the suffering he has brought to others? It is entertaining to see slimeballs steal, snort, and whore and yet still get away with it. Why is that? What is wrong with us? He is no hero; he is not even an antihero. In fact, he served only two years and has paid only a tiny fraction of his court mandated restitution. So, I suppose it can be said, he continues to scam. Pity.

 

“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”

Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence and disturbing images, sexual content and brief strong language.

This is more a docudrama than an entertainment film. It tells the life story of Nelson Mandela and I did not object giving up two and a half hours of my life to watch it. Idris Elba (Nelson Mandela) is charismatic and he does a superlative job and so does Naomi Harris playing Winnie Mandela. But the movie, however, seems somewhat sterile, and failed to move me or even she-who-sits-to-my-left. It is an intellectual experience, and the actors do their job most professionally. I admire this movie and it made me think back when I watched the news coverage of the demise of apartheid. My brain did a lot of cavorting, but my heart and soul were not invited to go along. Pity.

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” earns three bow ties out of five

“The Wolf of Wall Street” earns four bow ties out of five

“Mandela: Long Walk Home” earns three bow and a half bow ties out of five.