Seize the Moment

Rating: 6/10 (28 December 2013)

I saw "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", starring Ben Stiller-The Watch, Mystery Men; Kristen Wiig-SNL-t.v., MacGruber; Adam Scott-Our Idiot Brother, Step Brothers; Shirley MacLaine-Valentine's Day, Cannonball Run 2 and Sean Penn-Gangster Squad, The Thin Red Line.
This movie is based on the 1939 short story by James Thurber, about a man that leads a boring life. He gets through it by 'zoning out' or fantasizing that his life is much more interesting than it actually is. Ben, who also directs the film, plays Walter, a man that has an eHarmony account but no hits on it-his sponsor keeps calling to see if he has done anything interesting, so that he can put it on the site. Ben works in the photo development department at Life magazine and Sean plays his best photographer, that has just sent in his latest collection of photos. The only problem is that the best picture-according to Sean's attached message-is missing. Adam plays the bringer of bad news that Life magazine is going digital, and there will only be one more issue in print-using the recently acquired best picture from Sean-before the changeover to the computer age. After meeting a new office girl, Kristen, who encourages him to track down Sean and find the missing negative, Ben goes on a journey to Iceland, Greenland and Afghanistan- Sean does not have a cell phone and moves around a lot taking his photo masterpieces. Shirley plays Ben's mother. The 'zoning out' that Ben does is pretty good but it happens fewer times, as the movie continues-maybe because he is actually experiencing life and does not need to fantasize anymore. It's rated "PG" for violence and language and has a running time of 1 hour & 54 minutes. I don't think I would buy it on DVD but it would be alright, as a rental.