The Secret Life of Walter Mitty marks Ben Stiller’s fifth film as director and surely his most ambitious yet. Stiller is most commonly associated with full blown comedy both in front of and behind the camera, and while Mitty isn’t exactly light on jokes, there’s a lot more going on.
Stiller stars as the titular Walter, a nice but painfully dull middle-aged man prone to disappearing into his own heroic daydreams. He works in the photography department of Life Magazine, which is ditching print and going digital. A group of smug corporate downsizers, lead by a perfectly dickish Adam Scott, have been brought in to oversee the transition and Walter is tasked with tracking down the missing cover shot, a mystery image taken taken by legendary photographer Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn).
Facing redundancy and buoyed by a crush on office new girl Cheryl (Kristen Wiig), Walter begins to turn his day dreams into reality as he embarks on a quest to find O’Connell and, in true Hollywood fashion, he might just find himself along the way…
Based on the classic James Thurber short story, Mitty is a departure from Stiller’s usual comedic efforts, skewing far more sentimental and poignant than the madcap comedy of Zoolander and Tropic Thunder. It’s certainly Stiller’s most impressive effort behind the camera with some beautiful visuals provided by Oscar nominated cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh (The Pianist). The first act of the film is populated by purposely over the top, wonderfully rendered CGI day dreams but as Walter starts to have real adventures, the visuals focus more on stunning real-life vistas in Greenland, Iceland and Afghanistan, all scored to a nice mix of classical score and modern pop tracks provided by Of Monsters and Men and Arcade Fire.
Though the focus is more on the uplifting drama, any film with Stiller, Wiig and Scott in the cast is bound to have laughs and Stiller certainly puts his comedic stamp on a few of the more memorable day dream sequences, particularly a bizarre Benjamin Button-inspired segue that provides the film’s comedic high point.
As much as Stiller the director impresses, so too does Stiller the actor, giving a nicely understated performance that subtly encapsulates the frustration and melancholy that comes from a life that didn’t turn out how you hoped it would. Walter’s life story is drip fed throughout the film and the more we come to know about him, the more poignant the film becomes. There’s a great deal of warmth in his relationship with Cheryl too, a woman with baggage of her own who sees past Walter’s shy office drone exterior. Her comedic talents aren’t utilised much here but it’s a strong performance nonetheless.
If there’s a real drawback to the film, it’s that this central relationship is oddly put on the backburner a little too often considering it seems to provide the catalyst for Walter changing his life.
It might be a little too saccharine for some but those with a sweet tooth will devour The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It doesn’t always work and an overlong run time leaves a couple of baggy sections but the film is warm and endearing with a sincere and life-affirming message that generates enough good will to gloss over its occasional missteps.
