Reviewed by Victor Rebikoff.
Directors: Ben Stiller, 20th Century Fox, PG, 114 Minutes.
Actor/director Ben Stiller has brought to the big screen an enjoyable remake of the Danny Kaye movie released in 1947, based on James Thurber’s renowned short story in which Stiller plays the title character in this romantic fantasy adventure.
Walter Mitty is the manager of the photo negative assets section of Life magazine, having worked for the company for the past sixteen years and leads a dreary life, not going anywhere except from his home to his job.
In addition, Walter lives in a daydream world spending time fantasying about doing heroic deeds that at times include the pleasant Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig – ‘Wonder Woman 1984’) a person he has a crush on from work; he is also too shy to invite her on a date after attempting to contact her through an online dating service on his computer.
On one of his fanciful days, he turns up to work to learn that all the jobs at Life are under threat as communicated to him by his heartless boss Ted Hendricks (Adam Scott – ‘Friends with Kids’).
Walter is then told that as the assets manager in charge of the negatives section he must provide an appropriate negative of a photo that will be used for the cover of the magazine’s final issue.
As he attempts to console his assistant over his job loss, Walter suddenly comes across a negative sent by the reclusive explorer/photographer Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn – ‘Milk’) which compels him to find O’Connell during an adventurous journey through Greenland and Iceland.
When he returns home, he is surprised to find his dream-like wish about Cheryl has turned into reality, besides being amazed at the photo ultimately used to cover the final issue of the Life magazine.
Stiller excels with his direction of this enjoyable and entertaining 2013 movie release with an enchanting storyline of a unique individual fulfilling his adventurous dreams against certain odds, which turns out to be both appealing as it is uplifting.
Apart from the stunning settings shot in Canada, Greenland and Iceland there is the portrayal of the main character by Stiller (‘Tropic Thunder’) which is considered his best performance to date and complemented by Wiig and Scott-including Shirley Maclaine’s cameo role.
Vic’s Verdict: 4 Stars
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is to be televised on Channel 7 FLIX at 8.30pm on Friday 6 August.
