Have you ever loved a movie everyone hated? A movie that spoke to you, resonated deeply with you, yet panned by everyone who thought it wasn’t all that?
For the third semester in a row, I’ve screened “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” for my screenwriting students. The class is about writing adaptations, and I chose the movie because it’s based on a 1939 short story by James Thurber published in The New Yorker.
Many people, my students included, will tell you the movie is either okay or dull. That there’s nothing special about it. Even critics gave it mixed reviews with the movie receiving a score of 52% on Rotten Tomatoes, a B+ on CinemaScore and a scathing review on RogerEbert.com.
But that’s not the point.
Yes, movies should be entertaining and the storyline has to progress at a good enough speed to keep you entertained for the entire 90 or so minutes. But there are movies out there, like “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, that aren't about the scriptwriting, or its pacing, or how exciting it is.
These movies have a profound overall message, and it’s so subtle, so mild, that if you miss it all together, you’ll end up disliking the movie.
If you’ve never watched the 2013 movie produced, directed and starring Ben Stiller, you should.
The movie focuses on the main character, Walter Mitty, who is a negative asset developer for Life magazine. He is friends with a great photographer (Sean Penn) – who still uses film in the modern age – and is supposed to prepare a negative for the cover of the last print edition of the magazine.
Problem is, the negative is missing and it’s up to Walter to find it.
Both the short story and movie Walter Mittys are maladaptive daydreamers who live plain and simple external lives, but escape to wildly exciting imaginary adventures at any moment.
While the short story portrays a married Mr. Mitty driving his wife around the city to do her shopping; the movie’s Walter is a single guy with a crush on a new colleague (Kristen Wiig).
Within the first 20 minutes, we’re privy to Walter’s dull existence. He lives in a boring grey apartment within a boring grey building and wears boring grey clothes. At work, he’s awkward and a little weird, making him the perfect target for the office’s new bully (Adam Scott).
When I first watched the movie in 2013, what resonated with me most was that both Walter and I were suffering from our grief of losing a loved one.
We were both – what my therapist tells me constantly – merely surviving, not living.
I think in many ways, there’s a Walter in all of us.
We, who become caged by our emotions based on our traumatic experiences and then fear living. Whose sadness deepens, oftentimes crossing the borders into the realm of depression; whose guilt buries us in an avalanche of shame; and who develop anxieties from traumas that hinder us from living.
To survive, we establish a routine.
Every morning, we wake up, get ready for the day, go to school or work, come home, shower, eat, sleep, and repeat. Sure, we might mix it up a little here and there by socialising or going on a holiday, but at the end of the day, we’re back to our same routine.
So why do we do it?
Because it’s what is expected of us and, aside from ending it all, seems to be the only available option.
Trauma is debilitating. It grips us in its vicious claws and forces our brain to replay the experiences over and over again as it slowly sucks the life out of us.
Hence the need to survive.
We mask our anxieties, depression, and shame when we’re out socialising because we don’t want our messiness ruining everyone’s night. So we slap on a smile and pretend all is well.
Just like Walter.
When I first watched the movie back in 2013, it inspired me to travel. I planned a trip to visit my university friends in New York, then would fly to Scotland – with a weeklong layover in Iceland, because duh – where I would then trek my way across Europe before flying home from Germany. It was my big bad 2014 adventure that was unfortunately cut short when my dog got ill, thus cancelling the European leg of my trip.
While I love to travel and had the best time in Iceland with plenty of exciting stories from my trip, I didn’t get that life altering, perspective shifting, epic adventure Walter got in the movie. I had to face reality.
Unlike Walter, I was still surviving, not living.
Walter lived in movie land, where stories of life are easily packaged within 90 minute narratives. He had a supportive family, a keen love interest, enough funds and time off work to travel to remote places and an amazing soundtrack.
Real life cannot and will not follow the structure of the Hero’s Journey.
Over the three semesters I’ve played the movie in class, a couple students mentioned they were inspired by the movie to become photographers. Another said she loves it for the philosophy.
“When I watched the movie, I was in the hospital being diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Somehow the movie felt like it was teaching me not [to] give up,” she explains.
There is a quote repeated throughout the movie:
To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, to draw closer, to find each other and to feel. That is the purpose of life.
For Walter, the quote was a literal mirror of his adventure as he saw the world, experienced danger, formed a relationship and felt brave enough to speak his mind. He found his purpose and started living.
Reality isn’t as simple.
While a trip to Iceland is worth it to experience her beauty, she isn’t going to change your life for the better just like that. One solution doesn’t fit all.
But we stay inspired.
Maybe one day, I’ll find my purpose. Maybe one day, my student will find hers. Until then, we’ll keep surviving, keep going to therapy, and keep watching the movie for its profound message – so subtle, so mild – yet saves lives by continuously inspiring us to live.
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