Movie Review : The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a 2013 American comedy-drama adventure film written by Steve Conrad and directed, produced (with Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., John Goldwyn and Stuart Cornfeld) and starring Ben Stiller. The film also stars Kristen Wiig, Shirley MacLaine, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, and Sean Penn. Gore Verbinski served as executive producer.

This is the second film adaptation of James Thurber's 1939 short story of the same name. The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 5, 2013. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was theatrically released by 20th Century Fox, Samuel Goldwyn Films and New Line Cinema on December 25, 2013 in North America and December 26, 2013 in Australia & United Kingdom, to generally mixed reception, and was a moderate box office success. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 15, 2014 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Plot

Walter Mitty is a negative assets manager at Life magazine who daydreams of adventures and has a crush on a coworker named Cheryl. Mitty works with photojournalist Sean O'Connell, whose images are highly regarded. O'Connell has sent Mitty his latest negatives and a wallet as a gift in appreciation of Mitty's work. O'Connell believes negative #25 captures the "quintessence" of Life and that it should be used for the cover of the magazine's final print issue as it converts to online status. The negative is missing, however, and Walter is forced to stall for time with corporate transition manager Ted Hendricks, who is handling the downsizing. While viewing the other negatives outside Life's offices, Cheryl approaches Mitty and suggests that he think of the negatives as clues to Sean's location. They look at three of them, including one of a person's thumb with a unique ring on it, and another of a curved piece of wood. A third picture of a boat leads Mitty to determine that O'Connell is in Greenland. Mitty promptly flies there to find him.

A bartender in Greenland explains that O'Connell left on a ship. To find him, Mitty would need to go on the postal helicopter, and the pilot is drunk. Mitty recognizes the pilot's thumb with the unique ring and realizes he is on the right track. He at first declines to fly with the intoxicated pilot, but imagines Cheryl singing "Space Oddity", gains a new confidence and boards the helicopter. Nearing the ship, Mitty learns the helicopter cannot land upon it. Misunderstanding the pilot, instead of jumping into a dinghy boat nearing to catch him, Mitty aims for the main vessel and misses and falls in the ocean. He splashes down into ice-cold, shark-infested waters, losing a box of ship-to-shore radio components before being brought aboard.

Mitty learns that O'Connell departed the ship earlier. The crew offers him some cake O'Connell left behind; Mitty discovers O'Connell's destinations in the wrapping paper. The itinerary directs Mitty to Iceland, where O'Connell is photographing the volcano Eyjafjallajökull, and he arrives at the local village of Skógar near the volcano using a longboard, and notices O'Connell on the plane flying near the volcano. An eruption forces Mitty to flee, and as there is nothing left for him to do, he obeys a text message recalling him to New York.

For failing to recover the negative, his first failure in a long career with the magazine, Mitty is fired. He learns that Cheryl, who was let go earlier, seems to have reconciled with her estranged husband. Mitty returns home discouraged, throwing away the wallet when he visits his mother. To his surprise, Mitty recognizes the curve of the piano in his mother's house while looking at the last photograph. When asked, Mitty's mom mentions having met O'Connell. She had told Mitty before but he was daydreaming and failed to hear her.

Mitty discovers O'Connell is in the Himalayas, and finds him photographing a rare snow leopard. When asked about the negative, O'Connell explains that the message on the gift wrapping to "look inside" was literal; the negative was in the wallet. When pressed to reveal the image on the negative, O'Connell dismisses the question and joins in a high-altitude soccer game with some locals. Mitty flies to Los Angeles but is detained by airport security during a misunderstanding. Mitty calls the only person he knows in Los Angeles: Todd Maher, a representative at eHarmony who has kept in contact during Mitty's adventures.

While helping his mother sell her piano, Mitty recounts his story but mentions he does not have the wallet anymore. His mother says she always keeps his knickknacks and gives him the wallet that she retrieved from the trash. An emboldened Mitty delivers the negative to Life magazine, tells management that it was the photograph O'Connell wanted for the final issue, and berates Hendricks for disrespecting the staff that made the magazine so honored before walking away from the office.

Mitty reunites with Cheryl and learns that Cheryl's ex-husband was only at her house to repair the refrigerator. Mitty tells Cheryl of his adventures and admits that he still does not know what negative #25 shows. Mitty and Cheryl see the final issue of Life at a newsstand, with its cover dedicated to the staff. It is accompanied by the photograph from negative #25, showing Mitty sitting outside of the Life building, examining a contact sheet. Mitty and Cheryl continue their walk down the street holding hands.

Cast

Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty, a negative asset manager at Life

Kristen Wiig as Cheryl Melhoff, Walter's love interest and co-worker

Shirley MacLaine as Edna Mitty, Walter's mother

Adam Scott as Ted Hendricks, Walter's new boss

Kathryn Hahn as Odessa Mitty, Walter's sister

Patton Oswalt as Todd Maher, an eHarmony customer service representative

Adrian Martinez as Hernando, Walter's understudy and co-worker

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as a Greenlandic helicopter pilot

Sean Penn as Sean O'Connell, a photojournalist

Jon Daly as Tim Naughton, one of Walter's co-workers

Terence Bernie Hines as Gary Mannheim, one of Walter's co-workers

Kai Lennox as Phil Melhoff, Cheryl's ex-husband
Conan O'Brien as himself
Andy Richter as himself
Joey Slotnick as a retirement home administrator
Marcus Antturi as Rich Melhoff

Filming locations

Vatnajökull National Park, Afghanistan scene

Grundarfjörður, Erkigsnek docking scene

Seyðisfjörður, Longboarding scene

Höfn, Air Greenland landing at Nuuk scene.

Stykkishólmur, bar and helicopter take off scene.

Time-Life Building, Life building scenes

  (Obligated from : Wikipedia)

Moral Values

I believe this movie has a chance to be a long-term classic. It will become a classic if people figure out what the movie is really about. I feel that the purpose of ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ is not to thrill people; the purpose is much more internal. So, I’ve listed some themes that I found to be powerful messages within the film. 

Don’t judge a book by its cover

When we first meet Walter Mitty, he seems to be a very insignificant figure. This guy is about as unimposing a person as you’d ever want to see. He doesn’t have any apparent virtue that would make you think that he would be gracing the cover of an important magazine. There is already a simple lesson in this: don’t judge a book by its cover. We all have the potential for greatness.

You can’t find your soul mate until you have found your own soul.

Walter does have one thing that turns out to be a fabulous jewel. He has an eye for beauty. He has a consistent appreciation for his co-worker Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig). But the fact is, he has nothing to offer her in the beginning of the film. He has no prestige, no profoundness, he’s not developed. He doesn’t really know who he is, so how can he offer anyone anything?

Fantasy is a bridge to reality.

What he does have is a vivid imagination. Walter’s daydreams serve a higher purpose — I like to call them “practice sessions”. These fantasies plant his ideas in very fertile soil. I believe fantasy in this circumstance played a key role in his ultimate self-discovery.

A great life is a life of search.



It isn’t long before Walter gets presented with a challenge; to play the game of life. I don’t think you can find your soul until you get out in the sunlight — until you do something, become someone, and connect with others. Walter didn’t search to become a hero; his searches lead him to figure out who he was. Search for the realness of who you are.



The answers to life’s dilemmas are already there, within us.



Don’t search outside of yourself. The movie is really about what you already have. He’s got the negative in his own wallet. It hardly ever helps you to search for something of great value that is outside of yourself. You can make billions of dollars, or search to be the best race car driver that ever lived. Will that help you find your authentic self? No. It doesn’t do you any good to be a great anything, unless you have found your own soul. I also believe you find yourself when you give yourself away. Walter trades his prized childhood possession, Stretch Armstrong, for a skateboard to give to Cheryl’s son – whom he had only met once.



Don’t assume anything.



We all have those moments when we think we’ve lost the prize, but we haven’t lost it. Walter thought Cheryl got back together with her ex-husband just because he answered the door at her home. This clearly wasn’t the case. Be terribly suspicious of assumptions. Don’t try to be God, let God be God. Don’t overanalyze things too much.



One of the greatest traits one can have is humility.



Through his whole experience, Walter rises to every challenge and overcomes them all, but remains humble. He overcomes his adversaries by living a full life. Living well really is the best revenge. Walter doesn’t even look at the negative he had risked his life to find, because through his journey he found himself and contentment.



This movie deserves to be seen forever. It has the right virtues. It’s pursuing the right values. It is profound. It’s a relentless search to realize values. It’s also a movie about being, the consciousness of being – and until you get your being into consciousness, you don’t get to fully enjoy it. Ben Stiller has made a movie which tries to help us understand the ways of the human spirit — the soul. For that, I am very grateful.