The Secret Life of Walter Mitty review

Comedian Ben Stiller (Night at the Museum) stars in his directorial debut, loosely based on James Thurber’s classic short story of the same name, concerning the eponymous Walter Mitty, a hen-pecked daydreamer who escapes into elaborate fantasies.  

Stiller takes James Thurber’s as his start point and builds his own narrative upon it.  In the movie, Walter works in the ironically titled negative assets department of Life magazine dealing with film stock.  As he goes about his daily routine he daydreams of scenarios in which he can impress his attractive work colleague, Cherly Melhoff, played by Kristen Wiig (Despicable Me).  His world is shaken up, when the magazine comes under new management and is to be restructured as an online publication and threatens to cut jobs.  He becomes a negative asset himself when he loses the negative of what is to be the final cover image and his job is laid on the line.  Mitty then sets off on a global journey to track down the elusive picture.

The more technically adventurous aspects which make up the carefully edited trailer only comprise the first third of the movie.  These are the scenes depicting his daydreams.  Of the whole movie, these are the least successful aspects.  They are silly in nature, as would be expected in Stiller’s previous output such as Zoolander, such as a fight over a Stretch Armstrong figurine, but seem out of place in this, what is at times a very earnest film.  Particularly, bad is the Curious Case of Benjamin Button pastiche.  The new manager, played by Adam Scott (Friends with Kids) is too much of a caricature, also, to take seriously.  The film improves a modicum in the second third when Mitty begins his pursuit of the elusive photographer, although it is still undermined by silliness.  Mitty travels to Scandinavia, where Stiller takes the opportunity to capture some of the idyllic scenery.  Unfortunately, there is a ludicrous scene where he encounters a drunken helicopter pilot.  What is meant to be a rousing life affirming scene scored to a David Bowie song, creates a questionable message.  Is climbing into a helicopter with an inebriated pilot really an act of bravery and dedication, or one of stupidity? Equally ludicrous is the implausible trade off of the aforementioned toy for a long board, seemingly to justify a scene of Mitty skating down a mountain; his skater back story in itself highly unlikely given his current lifestyle.

Yet, despite these flaws, and if you stayed long enough to catch the final third, the movie is surprisingly affecting.  This is mainly during the scenes between Mitty and Sean O’Connell, the photographer, played with gravitas by Sean Penn (Milk) who espouses words of wisdom.  The message seems to be that sometimes you just have to live the moment and not seek to encapsulate it, and sometimes you can go to the ends of the earth to capture the essence of life when it’s right there at home staring you in the face all along.  Of course this is the big reveal of the movie as Mitty discovers what the missing photograph depicts, once his mother saves the day (a brief appearance by Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment).  Ultimately, Mitty no longer needs to escape into reality once he realises that his everyday life is impressive enough and Melhoff accepts him for who he is.  It makes for a poignant ending as long as you ignore the coda that life is to be lived just to make your online profile more interesting.

Neil Milton