The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

One really has to wonder what the professional reviewers are really thinking. We looked over the family movie list and barely decided to go to this one based on lackluster reviews. Six out of six of us REALLY liked it and found it deep and entertaining, and easy to watch. By all means, if you are looking to enjoy a movie, go see this one.

If you are looking for a connection to the original story, the connection happens during the first 45 minutes and then seems to go in its own direction. Big deal. The movie moves through characters development, plot lines, and geographies smoothly, and does not reveal its final hand until the end.

My first watch in the cinema was ok, but somehow I was expecting more, what exactly, I'm not so sure. 2nd watch without the expectations was much better. 3rd watch and I now think this is an exceptional film, good story line, strong performances, the scenery, the soundtrack, it's like Indiana Jones decided to become the lead singer of The Strokes or something like that, nuts I know. A solid 8/10.

"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is a short story written by James Thurber way back in 1939. It was about a henpecked man who escapes into a fantasy world of danger and heroics to compensate for the depressingly dull real life he leads.

Screen writer Steve Conrad adapts the title and the name and over-active imagination of the main character and tells his own original story. Ben Stiller directs and stars in this obvious "labour of love" of a movie project.

Walter Mitty is a timid guy who tends to "space out" and enter into a world of his own where he is able to do wondrously heroic exploits. He would rather join an online dating service than to meet this girl Cheryl at work that he fancies.

One day, he misplaced the precious negative of the photograph meant to be the cover of the last issue of Life Magazine. As his job is on the line, Walter needs to look for Sean, the globe-trotter photographer who took that missing photo. Upon deducing that Sean was in Greenland, Mitty suddenly decides to throw all caution to the wind and just go on a difficult quest, which will be the biggest adventure of his lifetime.

Visually, this film is perfect with its breathtaking cinematography and unobtrusive special effects. Many scenes, particularly those showing Walter skateboarding in Iceland, or climbing the Himalayas, were very memorably shot with unique camera range and angles.

The script does fall into melodrama, but I did not mind this. Ben Stiller was very good as Walter, capturing his shyness and cluelessness so sensitively. I liked Walter's moments with his mother, played by Shirley McLaine in a subdued likable manner. I also liked Walter's awkward romance with Cheryl played by Kristen Wiig, in only the second role I have seen her since "Bridesmaids." She was also very relaxed and natural here in a straight role. Too bad we do not see the full strength of her comic skills.

I cannot deny that I was disappointed with how the story went. Once we reach the second half of the film when Walter actually stops having fantasies and does things for real already. I know of course that this was the point of the film, that dreams were there to be fulfilled. I just felt it somehow lost the spirit of the source short story.

Overall though, this was an entertaining feel-good film that will bring us to places we rarely see on screen. The spectacular photography of the exotic settings demand that you see this film on the big screen.

Despite lofty comparisons with Forrest Gump, Walter Mitty admittedly does not exactly reach those heights. However, upon watching this film, you will wonder how something so beautiful-looking could have been totally shut-out from Oscar or any other award consideration.

Actually just one of them would make me want to give this a 10/10 and it is very close in my eyes. The scene I'm talking about involves a helicopter and a song that really got under my skin. If you don't feel a thing during that scene ... well I don't know what to say. The whole thing is build upon feelings and dreams. Obviously breaking out of them and making some of it reality (not the ones that can not be achieved obviously, like flying or other stuff) is the ultimate goal.

Ben Stiller might be known for one thing, but we can see with this movie he has a wider range. And the visual/virtual effects he uses help support his vision. A vision of a novel that I haven't read, but sounds more than intriguing even after you've watched the movie. Which cannot be said about most of novels/movies that have been made this way. This is not your typical movie, even though it might hit some familiar notes and go ways that are to be expected. Take the journey and fly with it ...

There is a World, in the Head of Walter Mitty that Does Not Exist, but don't tell Walter Mitty because that is His Escape.

What a Movie it is, this Incredibly Infectious Film. It is a Humorous, Touching, Visually Arresting, Romantic, Beautiful Escape. You could say that it is an Atypical Film as it goes Against the Grain of Current Bottom Line Procedures.

It is and most Likely was a Hard Sell. It's not the Latest Gross Out Comedy of Wallowing, Witless Pubescent Pandering. The Kind that Thinks that Creativity is Showing a New Way to Watch Someone take a Pee or Hurl Upchuck in Slow Motion. No this is a Somewhat Subtle, Warmhearted, Slice of a Life that No One Notices. He is a Plainly Dressed Man that Sports No Tie or Stubble.

The Market Men, those Profit Pursuers were Right. They Know the Audience Out there and it has No Tolerance for a Masterpiece of Chicanery with Charm. The Movie was a Flop out of Gate. It Bombed in the U.S. and that was Predictable. But Ben Stiller has Made an Enduring Epic of a Production. The Film is about as Good as it Gets for this Type of Hardly Ever Made Movie that has No Target Audience, as it Presents its Comedy, Action, and Adventure Without the Aid of a Caped Crusader or a CGI Monster.

Everyone Involved in this Glorious Film should be Proud. It is Life Affirming, Inspiring, and All the Good Things that We Need now and then. An Entertaining, Uplifting, Soul Searching, Artful Experience that Movies can be at Their Best. It may not be the Success Financially that Bottom Feeder, Bottom Liners want to make but in this Case it was Worth It.

Nothing this Good should be Ignored and should be Seen by the Very People that won't See it. It just Could take the Edge off that Cynicism, and Make Them Feel Good. The Movie Might just Find a Place in Their Heart. That is going to Make Some Uncomfortable. Maybe that's why They Stayed Away in Droves.