A Beautifully Crafted Masterpiece!

Rating: 9/10 (7 June 2014)

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty is one of those movies that slipped through my radar. I regularly keep up with the movies coming each year, but like a few others that had me enthralled, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty was one of the few movies that I didn't notice. I believe that the movies that we don't always notice, the movies that we don't always think about, are the movies that's going to hunt our minds for some time after having seen them.
I am pretty sure that The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty is one of those movies. I am writing this review a day after having seen it and I am still amazed at the way it was directed, the way the score of the movie simply makes my soul stop.
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty can be considered a remake of a movie from the 40's but the story is a lot different from the 40's movie, and what it borrows isn't much. I think that was a good decision. I am not saying that the original movie isn't a good one, I am just saying that whereas the 2013 takes a very different turn it fits and probably fits better than if they had decided to use the original story, as the original story was crafted way back and the mindset of today is quite different.
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty as mentioned is a movie released in 2013, it was directed by Ben Stiller, and he stars in the movie as Walter Mitty. The movie revolves around Walter Mitty who is a dreamer, so much so that it affects his life. He day-dreams about various things during the movie. When his life and the lives of the people around him is threatened he decides to seek out the person that might be able to help him or at least wake him up. In the end this in term sends him out on an adventure, he only dreamed about in his day-dreams.
Ben Stiller is perfect as the day-dreaming Walter Mitty. Ben Stiller can now and then seem quite hard to shallow, sometimes his humor is over the top or just rather annoying, and if you are a person who cannot get over that fact, and you believe that you are never really going to enjoy what he does, it's time to give it another go. I have bashed on Ryan Reynolds many times before, I said I couldn't get into the movies he did, many of them seemed so annoying, and then something happened. Ryan Reynolds changed his direction towards more serious and I guess more developed scripts.
I am not saying that I do not like movies that star Ben Stiller, I enjoyed the older ones and some of the new ones, but I also want to see him do something a little different I also want to see him turn into what Ryan Reynolds became with some of his newer movies. That's exactly what I got with The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. Ben Stiller's performance was amazing, and in comparison to other movies he felt real. Ben Stiller captures something not seen all the time, he truly plays Walter Mitty as a real life person, and his emotions are something not seen that often.
Of course there are other actors in this movie and while they do give the movie that extra spark and they are all doing an amazing job the movie is mostly centered on Ben Stiller, the story is about his character and he is what you are going to be seeing throughout 85% of the movie. Therefore I just want to go record saying that the other actors are well placed and they give that extra feeling that the person needs, they also complement Ben Stiller's character in a beautiful way.
I felt the direction of the movie was spot on, the camera work is just right and the visuals of the movie is at times mesmerizing.
Every scene was perfectly captured and just beautiful. For once I didn't notice too many camera cuts, maybe I just was too into the movie to notice, but if that was the reason then who cares, if they could give me that special feeling of exactly watching a movie and being drawn in to it then that's more than enough, that's more then what anyone could ask for. The movie is beautifully crafted, the art direction is perfect, and while some scenes are somewhat fake it still felt real and truly mesmerizing.
The Score of the movie created by Theodore Shapiro & Jose Gonzalez was perfectly composed to all of the scenes, the soundtrack isn't anything out of the ordinary, but the score is somewhat else. From the humming sound in the track "I'm Right Here" to the more heavy orchestral theme of "Stationary Cycle" every track just comes together to create a wonderfully masterpiece crafted by a steady and calm soul.
You may be inclined to look at the beautifully crafted visuals more than listen to the music, it all depends on the viewer but for me the music just came in to create something special, something alive, something soul and heart wrenching.
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty is something else, it's something special, it's one of the movies that went past my radar for some odd reason and while it may not be for everyone it's defiantly something that moves this sometimes old and rusty heart. It's a journey into the soul and heart of the one who truly believes that life can be more then what it sometimes is.
It's about taking chances, it's about waking up, it's about trying new things, it's about looking from other views, it' about realizing what's behind the covers, it's about life!