Ben Stiller’s new movie version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty borrows the same basic gimmick that drives the 1939 James Thurber short story: A mild-mannered man (Stiller) relies on heroic daydreams to take him out of his humdrum world. But the movie only takes flight when it lets Walter stop spacing out and start getting out in the world.
This Walter manages negatives for Life magazine, which is undergoing a transition to the Internet as the movie opens. The movie makes it clear how brutal journalistic downsizing can be. One early flight of fancy, in which Walter engages in hyper-digitized superhero-style combat with a corporate hatchet-man (Adam Scott, sporting a beard that rivals any in American Hustle), suggests desperation — for the movie, not the hero.
Then something happens. Walter loses the negative earmarked for the magazine’s final cover photo, shot by an intrepid superstar photographer (Sean Penn). His journey to recover it leads to Greenland and Iceland, into a freezing ocean and through the Himalayas. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty gradually turns into a rather heartfelt quest story about living a self-actualized life.
In the process, it keeps the visual razzle-dazzle but tones it down to a more organic, less oppressive palette, bursting with abstract imagery culled from everyday life. Ever wonder what it might feel like to skateboard through the rolling hills of Iceland? Walter’s adventures carry a vicarious sense of liberation, and the story rounds out his character sufficiently to let us share the joy as he escapes his shell.
Kristen Wiig, poorly used in the new Anchorman sequel, gets to show some acting chops as Walter’s love interest. Shirley MacLaine is appealingly fussy as his mom, and Scott lays on the smarm as his nemesis. Then there’s Penn, whose photographer looms over the movie as a sort of mythical creature always scrambling ahead of the action.
Like its hero, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty blooms brighter the farther it travels.
Follow Chris Vognar on Twitter at @chrisvognar.
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