#The secret life of walter mitty movie#

WalterвЂ™s quest to track down Sean leads him to Iceland, and in the process The Secret Life of Walter Mitty becomes the sort of film that instantly equates gorgeous landscapes with an elevated spiritual core, as if all we have to do to reconnect with our true selves is to get out of the city and climb a tree.

#The secret life of walter mitty movie#

WhatвЂ™s cruelly ironic about a movie featuring an intentionally unexceptional protagonist is that Walter isnвЂ™t unmemorable in a memorable way: Stiller doesnвЂ™t play him enough as either a comic punching bag or a touching everyman to speak to us.ДЄs a complement to a familiar storyline, Stiller injects the proceedings with a searching, bighearted spirit-with a sense of curiosity about the range of lives on this planet. In addition, as depicted in this Walter Mitty, WalterвЂ™s voyage of self-discovery isnвЂ™t particularly novel. In the almost 75 years since ThurberвЂ™s story was published, weвЂ™ve had plenty of films, everything from Brazil to The Purple Rose of Cairo, that have expressed the sometimes poignant divide between our drab realities and our lively inner worlds.

ItвЂ™s not that this storyline is inherently unworkable-itвЂ™s simply that Stiller can only do so much with it.

Meek Walter summons up the courage to go on a potentially dangerous globetrotting expedition in search of the reclusive Sean, and so we have a road movie that doubles as a personal journey. One of WalterвЂ™s favorite Life photographers, Sean OвЂ™Connell (a nicely subdued and Zen-like Sean Penn), has sent in a roll of film that includes the mystery image that will be the cover for the final print edition-except itвЂ™s missing from the roll. ThurberвЂ™s original 1939 story was only a few pages long, so Stiller and screenwriter Steven Conrad have to invent a feature-length plot.

But shy Walter has a ray of hope in his world thanks to a pretty coworker named Cheryl (Kristen Wiig) whom he imagines whisking away in one of his many daydreams. (Some of these are shown with the kind of scale and budget youвЂ™d expect from a summer studio tentpole, complete with action sequences.) His mother (Shirley MacLaine) is ailing, and some new executives, headed by Adam ScottвЂ™s insufferably smug Ted, have purchased the iconic magazine and decided to shut down the print edition. The second film adaptation of Walter Mitty-the first was in 1947 and starred Danny Kaye-this new version stars Stiller as Walter, a photo editor at Life whose humdrum existence is supplemented by a rich fantasy life. ItвЂ™s a movie about individuality that feels a tad impersonal. ThereвЂ™s a pleasure in watching Stiller try for something so bold-this is easily his most emotionally complex effort since Reality Bites-but one canвЂ™t escape the movieвЂ™s overly calculated attempt to be a big, comfy crowd-pleaser at the same time. It does lots of small things right but stumbles on the grand ideas that are meant to tie it all together. StillerвЂ™s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is, indeed, all of those things-but not compellingly enough. вЂњI hope it is funny and serious, epic and intimate, realistic while also being sort of a fantasy too,вЂќ he wrote. He further solidified those aspirations this past summer by taking the rather unconventional step of sending out letters to the press explaining his ambitions for Mitty. The article made it clear that Stiller, whoвЂ™s had hits directing broader comedies such as Zoolander and Tropic Thunder, wanted to go for something more seriocomic and thoughtful in tone. In June 2012, The New Yorker ran a profile of Stiller in which writer Tad Friend followed the director-star while making the film, an adaptation of the James Thurber short story. Ben Stiller has made no secret of the fact that he has high hopes for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.