An unexpected delight

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2014)

Walter Mitty, photograph curator for Time-Life, fancies new employee Cheryl Melhoff from afar: imagining himself in heroic persona, he does nothing about it. Then Life magazine closes and Mitty appears to have lost the key photograph for the cover courtesy of legendary photographer Sean O'Connell. Mitty has no choice but to track O'Connell down.
Let me say that I haven't read Thurber's short story and I haven't seen the Danny Kaye movie. I suspect this version takes little from either other than the idea of a mild everyman with a vivid fantasy life. But that's OK, because this film, directed by and starring Ben Stiller, is very much its own thing, and successfully so, too.
Although it has humour, it is not a comedy. Although it has fantasy, it is rooted in real people and relationships. Mitty suits Stiller's established screen persona (or a variation on it), and Kristen Wiig is a genuine pleasure as the object of his affections. Stiller's direction is also very good, with action and effects set pieces well handled, and titles and transitions proving a strong element from a production design point of view.
If I had a criticism, it is that the film is a little overlong: I felt that the pursuit of O'Connell could have been trimmed somewhat.
But, while I thought I would enjoy this film, it delighted me much more than I expected it to.