People have always longed for things that don't exist. This is true for films as well. We have already seen a lot of heroes with supernatural powers, and we also know the story in which the protagonist starts from the bottom to reach his goal. So what can bring some novelty to the Cinema? Ben Stiller's new Film tries to do so as it is about a typical ordinary man. It is about a dreamy average single man with average job, average apartment, average family and average problems. But the movie itself is above average!
The power of the story lies in the phenomenon that after the first 20 minutes 80 percent of people identify themselves with the protagonist as the story shows problems and situations that can happen to anyone.
Who hasn't wondered what it would feel like to tell their boss their opinion, talk to the woman they secretly love, travel to interesting places and experience real freedom?
So in the first third of the film, Walter Mitty (Ben stiller) is an ordinary American man, who often just stares in front of himself and daydreams. He imagines what he would do with his life if it was like what he wanted it to be. When he spontaneously has a conversation with the woman of his dreams, when he insults his boss, and when he does whatever he really wants to do. The movie shows us these things very spectacularly and funnily - just as it is expected from Ben Stiller.
However, in the second third of the film, the protagonist gets extraordinary features: he becomes a hero who jumps into the sea from a helicopter, skates as a professional, survives volcano eruptions and climbs the Himalaya (or at least he reaches 5500 meters).
Thus our image and the empathy that evolved in the first third are both gone. We cannot identify ourselves with him anymore, he rather becomes an unattainable hero.
We are still hoping, when suddenly comes a scene and we find out that this seemingly incredibly story was also made up by Walter. The last third also proves that the writers thought all these things seriously.
We are glad for the happy end, but we also feel that something is missing, and do not feel any motivation to follow the example of Walter Mitty and get out of the boring weekdays because the story is so far from reality.
