The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Jon Daly, Kathryn Hahn Movie Review

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Ben Stiller in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

Walter Discovers the Meaning of Lfe

Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) has a habit of zoning out and fantasising about an alternative version of what is happening at that moment. It leads to Walter not only being teased by others but also being shy when it comes to Cherl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig) who works in the same building as her and who he is sweet on. It is in that building that for 16 years Walter has managed the negative assets for Life magazine and where he is the contact with the mysterious independent photographer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn). When one of his negatives goes missing Walter finds himself on a quest greater than any of his fantasies as he travels the globe trying to find the mysterious Sean and the missing negative.

So I have just watched almost 2 hours of CGI comedy combined with Ben Stiller having a jolly has he travels the world in the name of making a movie, a version of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" very different to the one featuring Danny Kaye. Now maybe for the movie going generation which are half my age the effect driven humour of Walter Mitty's fantasies as he attacks the guy who bullies him will entertain, it has a distinct super hero vibe in its extremes at times. And maybe that generation aspires to seeing the World and finding themselves and the meaning of life along the way. Oh yes that brings me to the other side of this version of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" because it is full of the inspirational imagery and quotes which those who are trying to find something to believe in really dig.

The thing is that none of what I mentioned particularly entertained me, maybe 20 years ago when I thought that the World was my oyster I would have dug the mellow vibe of what this movie says. Despite this I can't deny that "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is a well put together movie which is visually quite attractive and Ben Stiller doing soulful soul searching is not bad. But I needed more than the imagery and quotes which you can often find on posters as well as Twitter with the tag #MondayMotivation next to them.

What this all boils down to is that I can understand why those who are younger than me and are in that meaning of life, soul searching phase would enjoy Ben Stiller's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". But as someone who is older and some may say more cynical the movie didn't do anything other than throw plenty of pretty visuals at me.


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