Movie Review: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Over the weekend my wife and I watched “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, the recent Ben Stiller production. I don’t really see this one as a remake of the earlier Danny Kaye classic. Rather it seems as though they both start from the same James Thurber material and go very different directions.

In this modern take, Stiller’s Walter Mitty is a negative asset manager (if I recall correctly) for LIFE magazine, which has been purchased and is being transitioned into an online publication. Walter is living a life not of his choosing, but thrust upon him when his father died and he apparently stepped up to take care of the family. Somehow he found his way into a job at LIFE magazine, maintaining the photo negative archives. Unhappy with his life and with himself he often gets caught up in daydreaming about a life in which he is much more heroic than he feels. Even the girl at work he’s got his eye on he admires from a distance, trying to get connected through an online dating service.

His life changes the day the magazine is bought and the hatchet man comes to start the downsizing. Walter receives a roll of negatives from Sean O’Connell, the magazine’s larger-than-life, world-adventuring photographer who has taken a liking to Walter. Having heard that the magazine was in trouble, he’s sent a picture he feels captures the “quintessence” of life to go on the magazine’s last print edition cover. He also sends Walter a wallet as a token of friendship. Unfortunately for Walter, the negative of the all-important photo is missing. His quest to find it puts him direct contact with the object of his admiration and takes him on an international journey in pursuit of the illusive O’Connell, all while being pestered by a tech support guy from the online dating service, trying to help him solve issues with his profile.

This is an unusual movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a small, personal movie set on a grand stage that leaves you both introspective and in awe simultaneously. The visuals are gorgous and sweeping, and the tone continually flirts with comedy, adventure, and drama. Yet Stiller the Director keeps it all low-key, including Stiller the Actor, though there are a few moments that make you think it might slip back into that. It’s an unpretentious movie that acknowledges its unlikely aspects while making you want to believe it anyway.

That’s not to say there aren’t problems with the movie. I just didn’t care about them until afterward when I was left having watched a movie that completely drew me in, and yet I couldn’t identify just why it had drawn me in so well. The message, if there truly is one, is so simple as to be overlooked entirely, especially since you’re not beaten over the head with it. Mostly I just wanted to be where Walter was, experiencing what Walter was experiencing.

This is not your typical Ben Stiller physical comedy–if I had to describe it, it would be a light drama. There are shades of the Stiller-esque lovable loser about Walter, but those quickly disappear–and yet his character arc is not a large one. He is not fundamentally transformed by his experience, but the change is there. Kristen Wiig plays his love interest with an endearing sweetness that makes it clear why Walter is so smitten. With the exception of the hatchet-man with the odd beard, pretty much everyone in this movie is likable in gentle, poignant ways.

I think, with all the awe and wonder associated with Walter’s journey I expected a strong message to come out of it, like I should know precisely what this movie expected me to do now that it had inserted itself into my psyche. It’s not that kind of a movie. The longer I think on it, I’m okay with that. Not every movie has to have a strong point. Some are just to be experienced and let you make up your own mind about what it said to you. Not everyone will like that. I did. I’d like to see this one again.