I really didn’t know what to expect going into this film. I remember the first time I saw this film’s trailer back around late July or so; that was before I really knew anything about the movie so I my initial thoughts were somewhere along the lines of ‘what movie is this?’ because I truly didn’t know anything about it, not even the original story it was based on. Regardless, it did leave quite the first impression on me because it looked very interesting. That story in question is a short story of the same name from 1939 by author James Thurber and it is regarded as his best story. It had been made into a movie before back in 1947 starring Danny Kaye as the titular Walter. This one, which is coincidentally produced by the son of the producer of the ’47 film, Samuel Goldwyn, is directed by Ben Stiller who stars as Walter in this version. So like I said, I didn’t know what to expect, not just from the first trailer but especially after this film received a pretty mixed reception from critics. In the end though, this one ended up being a pleasant surprise for me, mostly because of how creative the film was. It may not be entirely perfect, but it was still pretty entertaining.
The titular Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is a negative asset manager at Life Magazine. Walter, whose life is rather dull and uninteresting, frequently fantasizes of doing incredible things along with the hope of attracting the attention of one of his co-workers, Cheryl (Kristen Wiig). One day, renowned photographer Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn) sends Walter a special photograph that, according to him, captures the ‘Quintessence’ of the magazine. That photo in question, he suggests, should be used for the final issue of the magazine, as the company is set to move into the online business. However, that photo is nowhere to be found. Having never lost a photo in the sixteen years that he has been working for the company, Walter heads off on an adventure to find O’Connell in hopes of finding the photo, finally experiencing some excitement for the first time in his life.
This film really benefits from being very creative, mainly through some of the fantasies that Walter has in the movie. I mean I certainly wasn’t expecting one of his fantasies to parody ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ but aside from that, a lot of his fantasies (which are mainly in the first half of the film, which makes sense considering that he ultimately does go off on a real adventure) are very interesting; one of them even reminded me of those fights between Peter Griffin and the giant Chicken on ‘Family Guy’ (I won’t reveal the details of the fantasy that ‘parodies’ those scenes but if you see the movie, you’ll know what I’m talking about). This is also one of the best-looking films of the year in regards to its cinematography; there are plenty of landscape shots in this film and overall the film just looks really nice. This is Stiller’s first effort as a director that’s not primarily a ‘comedy’, but while the film does have a more serious tone to it than his other films, there’s still a pretty good amount of comedy in the film, like these multiple phone calls that Walter has with a customer service rep from eHarmony, played by funnyman Patton Oswalt.
Ben Stiller does a very good job in the lead role. He gives the character of Walter a very down-to-earth personality even when considering the fact that he has frequent fantasies. You do get the sense of what kind of person he is; someone that is sort of a ‘nobody’ who dreams of one day being someone and in that regard, he is pretty relatable. He has a really nice chemistry with Kristen Wiig whose character, like Stiller’s, also has a realistic and sensible personality. Their relationship feels real and that is really the key to a successful movie romance. Sean Penn, in a rather brief role, also does a very good job as well. His character has a very laid-back and zen-like attitude and while I’ll admit that I’m no expert in photography, I have a feeling that’s how most photographers would be like. The rest of the cast of characters are a bit more over-the-top, like Adam Scott as Walter’s new ‘jerk’ boss at Life or Oswalt as that eHarmony employee, but not really to the point that it negatively affects the movie itself.
This was one of those films that left me guessing going into it because I didn’t know what to expect from it after seeing the original trailer and seeing the film’s rather mixed critical reception. But in the end, ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ turned out to be a really nice surprise because of how good it ended up being. While more serious in tone than most of Stiller’s directorial work, this film benefits from having a good amount of humor in it and is both creative and one of the best-looking films of the year. Sure, maybe the writing is not as polished as it wants to be but the movie overcomes that just from its imaginative premise. The main characters do feel real even when some of the supporting characters are a bit more exaggerated. All in all, this is a film that I do recommend; it may not be entirely perfect, but it is still very entertaining. You can’t fault this film for being ambitious.
Rating: 4/5
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