Walter Mitty, a middle aged man, with a successful career. He makes one decision outside of his comfort zone, and that sends him off on a life altering adventure.

Rating: 10/10 (11 October 2014)

Walter Mitty, a middle aged man, who's earned a relatively successful career at Life magazine. He makes one decision outside of his comfort zone, and that sends him off on a life altering adventure. In this two-part adventure, he commits to changing his life to impress the girl. However, when that seems to have failed, he sets off on the second part of the adventure, this time for himself, which in turn gets him the girl after all.
SLWM is an adaptation of a short story written by James Thurber's back in 1947. Walter Mitty is a dreamer who works at LIFE Magazine. Walter is dreaming about his life so much, that he forgets, or maybe because of his own Code of Interpersonal Communication, is unable to actually live his life. He zones in and out of reality, imagining what he wants rather than living what he wants. He is inept in any interpersonal communications. Throw in a crush on a girl, and his awkwardness is multiplied seven fold.
We see glances into his personal Code when he first walks into the office and discovers that the physical magazine of Life was being replaced with an on-line version. Him and his co-workers are talking about the changes when he runs into his new boss. A cruel man, who is probably ten years the junior to Walter and his colleagues. His new boss quickly starts sucking in all the kiss- butting, and then teases Walter about the cake his sister brought him for his birthday. Walter is silent about the insult, but tries to stutter through what it is he does for the company as they all get on the elevator together. While on the elevator his boss continues to insult him, at which point, Walter goes into one of his daydreams where he get the upper hand by insulting his boss about his beard and being looked up to by his peers. "You know who looks good in a beard? Dumbledore, not you" (Walter-SLWM)
I saw this as Walters Code. He seems to have an ideal that he needs to behave in a manner which is non-confrontational. Even when confrontation is clearly being thwarted at him, regardless of what he believes. Walter really takes the second principle of Interpersonal Communication very seriously. "You can't really take back something once it has been said. The effect must inevitably remain. Despite the instructions from a judge to a jury to "disregard that last statement the witness made," the lawyer knows that it can't help but make an impression on the jury." (Donnell King) This must be stifling for him, because the only way not to communicate is through isolation. I think we see this mentality growing in our world everyday. More and more people are isolating themselves, in order to avoid some sort of communication that may land them in danger.
We are lucky to see the transformation in Walter during this film. He overcomes his shyness, and redefines his personal Code of Interpersonal Communication. Maybe at first he was doing it for the wrong reasons. Doing it for the girl, and not for himself. Possibly thinking, "Attentiveness is the gateway to empathy." (Herrington) However, in the end, finding his own personal strength for his own reasons leads him to a personal sense of peace, and confidence. Only then was he truly ready for a relationship with someone in the outside, real world.