For the Adventurer in All of Us

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2013)

Ben Stiller has shown himself to be one of the hardest working and most dedicated actor-directors in today's cinema. He again proves himself here with his latest directed film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
Stiller stars as the title character. Right away, we see who Walter is as a person. Stiller shows us what Walter's life is like as he is somebody who is conscientious with his money spending, cares about his mother, and lives a lonely life. Walter has begun to set up an account with eHarmony, but cannot come up with anything creative to put in it. But he continues to look at the profile of one Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig). He tries to send her a wink on the site, but it doesn't work. Walter then enlists the help of an eHarmony employee named Todd (Patton Oswalt), but still can't provide him with much information. At the same time, Walter has a habit of zoning out at various times during his day and ends up missing out on a lot, as he is one who can use lessons from Ferris Bueller.
We then see Walter show up for work at Life magazine, where he looks at the negatives for photos. When he arrives to work at the beginning of the film, he finds out that the current issue will be the last one publish and Walter has to look at the latest negatives sent in by photographer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn). Walter gets a message from Sean saying that negative #25 of the bunch is the best of the set and thinks that one should be the final cover. Trouble brews when Walter looks at the negative and notices 25 is gone. This prompts Walter to go out into the world more and look for clues to find Sean and retrieve the missing negative.
Ben Stiller's previous two directorial efforts, Zoolander and Tropic Thunder, were both entertaining with a lot of slapstick humor. With The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Stiller as a director toned down the slapstick, but still has plenty of humor in the film and does a nice job of putting heart into the story. Stiller also makes some great choices in making us know when Walter is zoning out and making us interested in figuring out the clues too. I also highly enjoyed how Stiller put in the message of going out there, living life, and showing what can be accomplished. Stiller has made a film here for the adventurer in all of us.
Stiller even does an excellent job of carrying this film on his shoulders as the lead actor. Stiller is great at making us like Walter and want him to succeed on his quest. The strongest part of Stiller's performance is that he makes Walter an ordinary guy who we can relate to. The entire ensemble does their part too. Kristen Wiig plays Cheryl, Walter's love interest. Wiig does a nice job of being Walter's motivation to go out there and do what he would not think about doing. Adam Scott plays Ted, Walter's new boss. Scott has shown before his capability of playing jerks like he did in Step Brothers, and brings that same kind of nastiness to his character here. Patton Oswalt is hilarious in his cameo as Todd, the eHarmony employee. Kathryn Hahn has a brief part as Walter's sister. Shirley MacLaine was also fun to see appear here as Walter's mother who gives him even more motivation and support. Sean Penn was the best of the supporting cast as the famed photographer Sean O'Connell. Penn has a great scene with Walter with a great monologue.
Steve Conrad wrote the screenplay based off of the short story and does a nice job of making the blueprints to this story about an ordinary man who does some amazing things. The cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh is very breathtaking. His capturing of the scenery made we want to go out there and see it for myself in person. There is also some inspiring music by longtime Ben Stiller collaborator Theodore Shapiro.