The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - Falcon's Blog

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Greetings, the Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a film from 2013. It stars Ben stiller in the main role of the protagonist, Walter Mitty and it is an adaptation of a short story that was written by James Thurber in 1939. It is also a remake of the original movie that had been made in 1947.The film lacks a large cast of notable actors or recognizable stars. Aside from Ben Stiller the most prominent cast members are Patton Oswald and Sean Penn. The characters they play had a reasonably large role in putting the storyline into motion but the actors didn’t get much of a chance to perform, especially Sean, as they didn’t receive a lot of screen time in comparison to Stiller.

The plot begins with Walter Mitty attempting to build his courage and befriend a recently hired co-worker, Cheryl Melhoff, with the intentions of pursuing a relationship with her. The problem is that Walter doesn’t have the confidence to speak to her in person. As such he is forced to return to his job as a negative assets manager in the photography department for Life magazine. When he arrives at work it is revealed to Mitty that his company is being downsized due to the company’s transition to the internet. Therefore, the next edition of Life magazine will be the last printed issue and therefore it will result in many employees losing their occupations.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

It is within Walter’s job description to ensure that the photograph makes it to the cover of the magazine. The picture was taken by photojournalist and adventurer Sean O’Connell, played by Sean Penn, who wants the photograph known as negative 25 to be used. O’Connell had sent Mitty a package that was supposed to contain photograph and a gift wallet for working with him for 16 years. Problems arise when negative 25 isn’t in the package. His job hangs in the balance and Walter threatened by Ted Hendricks, the transition manager, that if Mitty couldn’t find the picture that he was fired. This issue is further complicated by the nature of Sean O’Connell as he doesn’t stay still in one location as well as not having a mobile to contact him by. With the help of Melhoff, Walter is able to figure out that O’Connell is in Greenland but Sean wouldn’t be staying around for too long. This leads Mitty on a globetrotting in search of the ever moving photojournalist.

While there are positives to the movie, there were also a few aspects that are worth criticizing such as the day dreaming scenes. The character of Mitty tends to fantasies about committing heroic or outlandish deeds that are completely contrary to his dull nature. The daydreaming sequences were intended to give some personality to the character of Walter but in my opinion the scenes tend to disrupt the flow of the story without really adding anything. Another fault of ‘the Secret life of Walter Mitty’ that I found is that most of its jokes backfire in the sense that they are more strange than funny, leaving only a few memorable ones to keep the audience entertained. On the other side and on my own opinion, the film did get better as the story progressed. Overall it is worth watching but not something that you should actively seek out.

Plot=7/10

Characters=6/10

Special Effects=7/10

Overall=7/10

Quote of the day

Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt.

Robert Lutece

BioShock Infinite

Written by Falcon, Tuesday 8 April 2014

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Falcon  11 year(s) ago (130 months)

Thanks for the comments, you haven't missed much by not seeing it.

 
Joh  11 year(s) ago (130 months)

I haven't seen the film, but I do know of it. From what I had heard it's a decent film and your review seems to agree with that verdict. I didn't really know what the movie was about, but I do now! The idea sounds good.

 
Aaron  11 year(s) ago (130 months)

I haven't seen this one, though the concept doesn't sound so bad.

 
Brisingr  11 year(s) ago (130 months)

Nice Review. Yes bit of an odd one, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Certainly graphically it was nice - plenty of nice scenery shots but the story and characters were a bit on dull side at times. Still it was a decent watch.