Well done transformation: office worker to adventurer

Rating: 9/10 (4 January 2014)

Egregious product placement mars, but does not spoil, this gorgeous and uplifting film. The advertising can perhaps be somewhat excused due to what clearly must have been an expensive and risky undertaking. The film goes to some fantastic locations and could not have been seen as a surefire success.
Thematically, it has shades of Office Space (1999) and Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), the downtrodden worker caught up in the office machinery, with a lighter comedic touch and delivering a more optimistic view of the worker. At the same time, there's a strong reminder — Take those vacations!
Notable:  Ben Stiller as Mitty makes a believable and fun transformation from solid responsible officer worker to adventurer.  The film makes great use of David Bowie's song "Space Oddity."  It's great to see mom, as portrayed by Shirley MacLaine, as the hero many of us known her to be!
While it's loosely based on the James Thurber short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" there's clearly an homage to Peter Matthiessen's National Book Award winning The Snow Leopard (1978).
"If the snow leopard should manifest itself, then I am ready to see the snow leopard. If not, then...I am not ready to perceive it...and in the not-seeing I am content...That the snow leopard is, that it is here, that its frosty eyes watch us from the mountain—that is enough." — The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen
Fans of this movie, read this book!