Sweet story drowned out by too much CGI

Rating: 6/10 (23 July 2014)

Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is a meek daydreamer working as the negative asset manager in Life magazine. He hasn't been anywhere noteworthy. He is infatuated with Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig) who joined Life a month ago. The problem is that he keeps spacing out as he daydreams. Life got taken over and Ted Hendricks (Adam Scott) is there to close down the magazine. Legendary photographer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn) sends in a specific photo to be developed by Walter for the cover of the final issue. Only Walter can't find it and he goes off to find the unreachable Sean O'Connell. Also Shirley MacLaine and Kathryn Hahn play his mother and sister.
There is a sweet likable story here. It strives to be poignant. Ben Stiller directed this ambitious film and he does a reasonable job. He just needs a few adjustments. Walter's daydreaming wore out its welcome as he and Ted do battle. Stiller is doing too much. That also goes for his trip to Greenland and Iceland. It's too outlandish. He is stuck with this idea of making his daydreams come alive. It would be so much more poignant for Walter to have real experiences. The Afganistan trip is still unreal but it feels more real than the rest of the movie. In that sense, it works better. The artificial nature of everything just strips away some of the real feeling. Just because there is advancements in CGI, it doesn't mean that it must be used.