The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

James Thurber's 1939 tale of the daydreaming milquetoast (Ben Stiller, also directing) comes again to the screen, with even less regard for its source than the 1947 Danny Kaye version. Steve Conrad's script gives short shrift to Mitty's fantasies before dispatching him on real adventures—and you needn't wait for those to turn out to be simply more fantasy: Conrad hasn't the wit for that. The movie hits mostly false notes, beginning with making Mitty an employee of the defunct Life magazine. Worse, his real adventures are no more credible or interesting than his daydreams, and the character himself remains a dim cipher. Director Stiller leans heavily on stale CGI, and wastes a talented supporting cast: Shirley MacLaine, Kathryn Hahn, Sean Penn and (most wasted of all) Kristen Wiig as Mitty's office crush.