A Look Into The Not so Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2019)

As director and co-star, Ben Stiller travels into uncharted territory with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Compared to his previous more eccentric films such as Tropic Thunder, he takes a new approach as he intricately works together the seriousness of the film and touches of his own humor.
Based on a 1939 short story by James Thurber, the movie introduces Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) as a hesitant and tentative character but, despite his lack of confidence, a good job was done as to not make Walter seem like a weak character. To start off, Walter is calling to figure out how to leave a wink on eHarmony for one of his coworkers, Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig) and, while on the phone with his Eharmony consultant, Todd Maher (Patton Oswalt), he is asked why he left the "been there, done that section" blank. Walter concedes that he hasn't really done anything of note. Soon after, we get to see examples of these somewhat comical daydreams that Walter is prone to. Action packed phenomenons that someone who seeks adventure would be prone to.
Walter, now a 16-year negative asset manager for the magazine company, Life, has developed a relationship with the old-school photographer and hardcore adventurist, Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn). The company is making the transition to the digital age and is publishing their last magazine edition ever. Walter has always looked after Sean's negatives, and when he receives his last role of film, he is disturbed to find that one shot is missing. Shot 25, also life magazines final cover, was nowhere to be found. Walter, under the pressure of the new managing director of transition, Ted Hendricks (Adam Scott), seeks help from Cheryl who encourages him to go find Sean. The rest of the movie is taken up by Walter's expedition of a lifetime to go and find Sean.
Again the direction was exceptionally done by Stiller as he worked together many aspects of the film to create a purposeful and emotionally touching experience. He intricately worked together his corky edge and the more serious parts of the film. Stillers attempt to bring these two aspects together kept me interested and engaged throughout the movie even though there were times where I didn't know where he was going with it.
The soundtrack did a great job of setting the mood and pulling the viewer in emotionally. But I would rather point out the cinematography that created an exceptionally beautiful motion picture. The up close shots in moments of Walters deep thought help along with the crazy cool landscapes to create contextual clues for the viewer that these are the moments that Walter is really experiencing life.
We are given a variety of different settings that take us through the adventures of a lifetime all in one movie. The settings contain some of the most elegant places on earth such as the mountains of Greenland, Iceland and the himalayas just to name a few. The ever changing and dynamic costumes blended the settings unobtrusively with the plot and them as well as helped convey the immense amount of change and new things Walter Mitty was experiencing.
As director and co-star Ben stiller brought us a magnificent blend of his humor, that we all love, and a purposeful message that touches and applies to nearly everyone who have begun to grow up.