★★★★☆

Four Stars

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (starring and directed by comedian Ben Stiller) follows an inconspicuous middle-aged white collar worker in New York City who suffers from intense daydreams, and in a warming journey of self-discovery, finally manages to realise them.

Peter Bradshaw (film critic for The Guardian) didn’t fail to note the directing and acting credits claimed by Ben Stiller, in his opinion constituting a ‘narcissistic’ adaptation. Indeed, we are subject to many an extended shot of Ben Stiller’s face. Having said this, Stiller’s transition from such directly comedic (and arguably momentous) roles in Meet The Parents, Starsky and Hutch and Zoolander, has been surprisingly seamless. Despite considerable doubt, Stiller has produced a thoroughly convincing ‘everyman’ role which does not deserve to be criticised.

Kristen Wiig, who plays Walter’s love interest Cheryl, is cast equally successfully and adds an honest charm to the film which thankfully avoids the ‘sickly sweet’ trap common to the happy-go-lucky rom-com girl.It is partially due to this acting that The Secret Life earns such success in the realm of sentimentality: we accompany socially awkward Walter every step of the way as he matures clumsily from wallflower to winner. We laugh with him, not at him, and are satisfied when his efforts are rightly rewarded in the final scene.

Despite this success, one critic’s proclamation that the film was the new Forrest Gump is uninformed. Yes, Walter Mitty is a story of the underdog – one which doubles as a romantic comedy and warms the cockles. Regrettably however The Secret Life is neither a classic nor an epic. While we experience notable pathos, it is not quite enough to stir any tears, to leave us empty or even reflective upon leaving the cinema. Mitty’s story, despite his wild travels, is relatively insular; Gump’s manages to be relevant to the majority of North America. While similarities are apparent in sentiment and inspirational content, Walter Mitty will struggle to achieve half as much critical acclaim as Zemeckis’ masterpiece.

Apart from this, the film does triumph on the back of Stuart Dryburgh’s stunning photography. Walter’s adventures to Greenland, Iceland, the Himalayas and Afghanistan provide enough high contrast, high resolution scenes for us to be able to watch the entire film on mute. These epic, worldly shots, interspersed with banal scenes set in a concrete New York, do well to emphasise the grey life in which Walter lives, and the seemingly unattainable life of which he first dreams.

What can be aptly criticised however is the extent to which these bursts of colour and light affect the plot, rendering the film rather unrealistic and implausible. Walter, upon having a mental epiphany, leaves work unnoticed in the middle of the day, flies to Greenland immediately with no luggage and, from this day forward, becomes a new man. No strings attached. Just like that.

If we can overlook such trivialities though, the film undoubtedly constitutes a success: it’s a warm fusion of traditional feel-good cinema with an inspirational message to ‘stop dreaming and start living’, panoramic shots of mountains, and Ben Stiller’s face.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is in cinemas now

Following their recent West End smash hit, The Play that Goes Wrong, Mischief Theatre have returned with a new offering: Peter Pan goes Wrong. The play-within-a-play tells the story of a disastrous production of Peter Pan, staged by the hapless Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society.  The performance is a hilarious catastrophe from start to finish, superbly and energetically acted by the ten-strong-cast.

The (real) actors play a motley crew of melodramatic and accident-prone amateur thesps, who each portray multiple roles as the cast of Peter Pan.  Keen to distance themselves from calamitous earlier productions, the Drama Society assure the audience that this time the play will be carried off without a hitch.  However, within the first few minutes, an actor has to be sawn out of a door, the beds of the three Darling children collapse onto one another, and the sound effects are severely malfunctioning.

The show continues in this vein until the hysterical climax of act two in which technicians are unable to stop the stage from rotating, giving us a glimpse of the scandalous backstage life of the ‘cast’.  All of this plays out to the soundtrack of a pirate shanty sung by actors who helplessly revolve in and out of view. 

Beneath the farcical surface of this piece lies excellent direction and careful choreography. The writing is funny and original, and is complemented by the use of clever staging and set design. The humour at times feels a little samey, and two hours of slapstick and schadenfreude is probably as much as anyone can take. But don’t let that put you off- this is slapstick at its best. Cringes quickly gave way to giggles, and by the end of the first scene the audience was crying with laughter. This could well be the funniest piece of theatre around at the moment, delivered by a young and exciting group.

If you are suffering from post-Christmas overindulgence and an impending January-blues, grab a ticket to one of Mischief’s current productions. Peter Pan Goes Wrong is at the Pleasance Theatre in London until 5^th January, and The Play That Goes Wrong comes to the Oxford Playhouse from the 27^th January-1^st February.  You might just change your mind about slapstick. I know I did. 

The York Mystery Plays

The York Mystery Plays include a medieval nativity – a pre-cursor to the chaotic productions most people will remember from Primary School. They are a cycle of Middle-English pageants which detail Biblical events. They lasted so long that the time of day was in co-ordination with their position in the Bible – starting with Genesis and the creation story at sunrise, and ending with the Last Judgement at sunset. They were performed in York until 1569, but the Chester Mystery Plays still take place every five years with the most recent production in 2013.

The Annunciation – Fra Angelico

In San Marco Cathedral, Florence, as you go up the stairs into the dormitories of the monks, there is a sharp turn and immediately in front of you is this majestic fresco of Gabriel and the Virgin Mary; one of the best depictions of the first part of the Christmas story. The topic was incredibly fashionable in the Renaissance, though most position Mary leaning away from the Angel, in fear and apprehension. These paintings were filled with symbolic objects such as Mary’s weaving and lilies. The soft muted palate and the curiosity in Mary’s expression set it apart from many other annunciation scenes. This painting is far simpler; there is no external ornamentation in the room. Mary instead leans towards Gabriel, willingly accepting of her God’s wishes. Its calmness reflects the quietness and the ascetic nature of monastery itself where monks still live today.

On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity – John Milton

Milton wrote this poem on Christmas Day 1629. In it, he celebrates the way in which Christmas is celebrated in the same way every year and the joy and light bought to earth by the Baby Jesus and his “far-beaming blaze of majesty” Mostly Milton is known for his strict, puritanical leanings but this poem sets him beautifully apart from the Parliamentarians who wished to ban Christmas. 

The Adoration of the Magi – Morris & Co.

The Adoration of the Magi is the name traditionally given to the Nativity of Jesus in art, in which the three Magi, represented as three Kings, present Jesus with their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. There have been numerous artistic representations of the scene dating back to the 4^th Century. In 1886 the rector of Exeter College, Oxford, commissioned William Morris to make a tapestry to hang in their chapel. Edward Burne-Jones, one of the most prolific painters of the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, delivered a preliminary sketch of the tapestry. The tapestry was woven ten times, and one of them can still be found in the chapel of Exeter College.

Bebe (The Nativity) – Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin was a post-impressionist, recognised for his bold and experimental use of colour. He was born in France, but his parents were from Peru. The culture and imagery of the country, and of the other countries he visited, would later influence his art. A trip to Tahiti to escape “everything that is artificial and conventional” was particularly important to the development of his style. This can be seen in his realisation of the nativity scene, in which the focus falls not on the baby Jesus, but on a Tahitian newborn in the forefront of the picture. The message, perhaps, is a comment on popular religion. Babies are being born all the time, each one equally special.

Santa – Coca Cola

Santa has been seen in Coke adverts since the 1920s. The brand has helped shape our impression of Santa as a jovial, plump and generous old man. Before he was often thin and scrooge like. Coke used the iconography of St Nicholas who was often portrayed in long red robes to inform their images.

Fairytale of New York – The Pogues & Kirsty McColl

Often cited the ‘best Christmas song of all time’ this is a poetic and tragic Christmas story. It begins in the drunk tank, where an old man’s song prompts the singer to reminisce about a more hopeful Christmas past which seems to be an American Dream story of two lovers, possibly Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine: ‘I can see a better time / When all our dreams come true’. The lyrics detail the progression from hope to misery as the lovers are consumed by alcohol and heroin. It is possibly based on the novel of the same name by J. P. Donleavy, about the emptiness that belies the hollow dream of a new life in New York City. The ultimate message, and the one which makes it Christmassy, is of sharing life with someone else: ‘Can’t make it all alone / I’ve built my dreams around you.’

The Invisible Christmas Tree – Tracy Emin

Tradition dictates that you take down your Christmas trees on twelfth night, the 5^th of January. But in 2002 the Tate had no need to do so. Every year they commission an artist to design a Christmas tree for Tate Britain. Tracy Emin decided to send her Christmas tree to Lighthouse West London, an HIV and Aids charity. In the main entrance hall, free of pine needles and baubles, visitors were instead left with a notice which encouraged them to send donations to the charity. This made the point that accumulation of material possessions should not motivate Christmas giving. Sometimes modern art is conceptual and irritating, this was the opposite: conceptual and worthwhile.