The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

Just Love the Landscape, not the Movie

Stars   :  Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Jon Daly, Sean Penn
Score  :  6.5 / 10

 

Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is a single man 40 years old. He works at Life magazine and has a good position, as a manager in negative film asset department. Mitty has a high imagination. He loves to dream and imagine. Some people in the office think that he is a weird because of that. Mitty does not have a close friend, including a woman, because he is not smart when face to face with a woman. He was too shy and quiet. He only has a friend in the office, Hernando (Adrian Martinez), a Mitty's crew. Mitty choose to join a dating agency to get female friends, then he met Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig), a widow with a kid. Cheryl works at Life magazine too. Mitty was interested and love Cheryl.

Mitty

Mitty and Hernando

At that time, Life magazine plans to turn into an online magazine. From a place that is not known by anyone, an eccentric journalist, Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn) sent a film negative roll to Life magazine. In his telegram, O'Connell said that he had a special gift, a film negative #25, which is very nice to be used as Life magazine cover.

Cheryl Melhoff

The new director of Life, Ted Hendricks (Adam Scott) chose film negative #25 to be used as cover of Life last edition before becoming an online magazine. But, Mitty did not find film negative #25. He only found a roll film without #25, a wallet and a note in the package that has been sent by O'Connell.

a note from Sean O'Connell to Mitty

Sean O'Connell

Mitty try to find film negative #25 through O'Connell soon, but no one knows where O'Connell was. Mitty also asked for help from Hernando and Cheryl to find O'Connell. Hernando printed another O'Connell's photo and successfully provided a little clue to Mitty. Since of that, the Mitty's life which always runs monotonous, turns into a journey that had been dreamed by Mitty. Mitty moves from a place to another and experiences a lot of new things that he had never felt before. All of it was done to find O'Connell, especially for film negative #25.   

Mitty had to pass a difficult trip to find O'Connell. Mitty have to meet locals who speaks foreign language. He almost died because of volcano eruption. He also had once arrested by airport security. Ted also urged Mitty to complete the deadline, last cover of Life magazine. It seemed Ted does not like Mitty. He considered that Mitty is a freak since they first met. But, all of that brought changes in Mitty's life, including his love life with Cheryl.   

Mitty's Adventure

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is directed by Ben Stiller and played by himself. This movie is also a remake of old movie in 1947. When the first time I knew that this movie is a comedy and played by Stiller, I already imagine how funny this movie. But after I waited for a few minutes to the ends, I did not get what I have expected. Stiller performed very different, as Mitty, quiet and shy. Stiller played as Mitty successfully, but failed to make audience (including me) feel entertained. Then why this movie is categorized into comedy movie, I do not know why, because to be honest, sorry, I do not feel that this movie is funny. Mitty's role is not suitabled for Stiller, because Stiller was too identical with a comedy role.

From story content, the movie tries to deliver a moral message about the purpose of life. The message is good, but unfortunately less conveyed well through the story. I think, more easily to catch message from the text that appears uniquely in some scenes, such on the road and sky. This is one of the uniqueness from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the appearance of text in unexpected and unusual places.

The story line was slow. I feel bored and have to restrain sleepiness before finishing this movie. Nothing makes me interested to continue watching this movie, besides the landscape and songs that became the background when Mitty was in an adventure. Sorry Stiller, I prefer you in Duplex, not in this movie.