Country: USA
Movie Review: “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is a comedy-drama surrounded by fantasy and weak mystery, falling short in vivacity or interest. Ben Stiller directed, acted, and produced, basing himself in the acclaimed short story by American author, journalist, and cartoonist James Thurber. Stiller gives life to compulsive daydreamer Walter Mitty, who works as a negative assets manager for Life Magazine’s photography department. He tries desperately to approach his coworker Cheryl Melhof (Kristen Wiig) for whom he has a crush, and at the same time, locate his photojournalist friend Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn) who gave him an important photograph that would be the magazine’s next cover. The problem was that the photograph disappeared. This fact makes him confront, both in dreams and reality, the nasty executive Ted Hendricks (Adam Scott), who nags him all the time in front of others. However, a trip to Greenland, Iceland, and then lower Himalayas will make Mitty find the answers he’s searching for. The tortuous script with its multiple heroic dreams and foreign adventures, together with the awkward mood presented, never pleased me or made me feel involved. It worked more like a composition of small parts rather than a continuous and fantastic adventure towards self-discovery. Mr. Mitty’s great secret is dispensable, and its viewing lacks fun and thrill, adding up in the final part, a self-content fragment of cheesiness.
