The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Screens, Pundits Scramble

Last year, when Life of Pi was shown to the NYFF, no one really knew what to make of it. Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, a few of us bloggers were selected by the then publicist, Bumble Ward, to see the film. Some of us sobbed girly tears. I can remember saying to Pete Hammond in the garage on the way out, “going to be tough to beat that.” All that to say, nobody knows anything, but you kind of know when you see something that you know is going to have a major impact. Well, some of us did, anyway. Some of us clearly didn’t. The New York Film festival crowd is rarely to be trusted in terms of sussing out an Oscar contender as there were mixed reviews coming out of the NYFF on both Life of Pi and Hugo, the previous year.

At any rate, Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty screened once again in New York and LA at the same time (AwardsDaily was sadly not invited WAS invited! But it was LOST in my inbox –MY FAULT)— there wasn’t much confidence in the way of any of the bloggers I know except to say “never say never,” as Scott Feinberg writes in his piece for the Hollywood Reporter:

Films of this sort are generally categorized as “fantasy,” which is not the Academy’s favorite genre, and this year’s awards season is tremendously competitive, so I cannot say with any degree of confidence that this film will be nominated for any major Oscars. But, if I had to venture a guess, I think that voters will check it out (if only because Stiller and Wiig possess such likable screen personas) and probably be charmed by it. Will that be enough to bag it a best picture or best actor nom anywhere but at the Golden Globes? We’ll have to see how the rest of the field shakes out, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

I think we can say with a good deal of confidence that Life of Pi it ain’t. I also think there’s a big difference with having someone like Bumble Ward finesse things on the backend.