Anthony Lane kvikmyndagagnrýnandi The New Yorker er ekki par ánægður með The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Eftir að hafa rætt fjálglega um Her, nýju myndina frá Spike Jonze, segir hann:
„After watching “Her,” why bother with “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”? The problem is not just that “Her” is a better film but that it’s a better Walter Mitty film—a more ambitious way of addressing the state of Mittyhood.“
Og Lane bætir við:
„This Walter does have reveries, including the rescue of a three-legged dog from an exploding building, but they dwindle after half an hour, leaving Stiller—who directs as well as stars—to fill the time. The same dilemma greeted Danny Kaye when he took the role, in 1947. Having exhausted his heroic imagination, Walter swelled into an actual hero for the rest of the movie, and the same applies here, as he jets to Greenland and Afghanistan, leaps from helicopters, and tussles with sharks. So much for Mitty the non-achiever. At least Kaye was up against a decent villain: Boris Karloff, no less, whose opening line was “I know of a way to kill a man and leave no trace.”“
Lane slúttar svo á eftirfarandi hátt:
„The result may be the oddest film of the season. It boasts an array of sublime backdrops and a yearning score, but the climate of feeling is anxious and inward, encapsulated in Stiller’s darting gaze, and the movie itself keeps glancing backward, at the lost and the obsolete. Walter works at Life, which is closing down and preparing its farewell issue. His grail, as he hops the globe, is a single negative from a strip of 35-mm. film. This air of elegy infects the story and sucks the fun out of it. It kills a beautiful idea and leaves no trace.“
Á Rotten Tomatoes er myndin sem stendur með 42% skor – en mikill áhugi er þó meðal notenda vefsins að sjá hana.
Myndin verður sýnd hér uppúr áramótum.
