Carpe diem?

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

Director, Actor: Ben Stiller

We are told that routine is good for us. We as human beings are easily swayed by our primal instincts that we need a laid-out plan and to follow a ritual to explore the fullest of our potential. The path paved by people before us gives the best assurance that our purpose of existence will be met. 

Essentially, we are told to lead dull, predictable, mundane lives. Nothing new is bound to come out of this type of arrangement. 

But then, life is as usual, not so straightforward.

“Carpe diem, Horace had said. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you will be dead for eternity”. You have one life to experience everything. Miss this, and you have lost it forever. You cannot step into the same river twice, said Heraclitus. 

For that flash-in-the-pan, out-of-the-box idea, one has to be spontaneous. Otherwise, the human race will not have that occasional vertical peaks of scientific and social discoveries that propel them forward in life. 

How often in our lives have we organised outings or holidays at the spur of the moment? In fact, these types of impulsive arrangements end up being more memorable. I remember buying tickets to watch ‘Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark’. Not knowing anything about the plot or its genre and not knowing what to expect, the two-and-a-half hours spent just blew my mind away. 

Perhaps rather than fearing that faring the alternate may derail our well-thought itineraries, one is allowed to stray away occasionally. Sometimes it is not all about the destination but also about the journey. It is not only about scaling Point A to Point B in record time but enjoying the journey and smelling the roses along the way.

This film is supposed to be a remake of a 1947 comedy of the same title. Actually, both movies approached the topic rather differently.

In the Ben Stiller version, Walter, a 42-year-old single introvert employed with LIFE magazine as a negative assets manager, is in a fix. His company is going digital, and he may be terminated. The negative needed for the next issue is missing, and the fellow female employee that he has the hots for seems unattainable. Rather than seizing the moment in front of him, Walter tends to daydream. Daydreaming gives him an outlet for him to channel his frustrations. 

A snow leopard off the mountains in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, pressure mounts to retrieve the missing negative, but the sender has no return address and is always on the move. Walter decides to embark on a rollercoaster ride to locate the sender. What he discovers is a vast world full of adventure that he never knew all this while.

The 1947 version is more of a slapstick comedy of the goody two-shoe son of a domineering mother and his entanglement with a mob. 

This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.