REVIEW | The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

The Story:  What would you do if were forced out of your comfort zone and into a journey around the world? The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is the story of a man who is too shy to actually do anything he wants to do in life. But when his job at Life Magazine becomes jeopardized due to the magazines transition to online only and he loses the negative for the final issue’s cover he must go on a trip to the other side of the world to find the photographer and try to locate the missing picture.

The Facts: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is Directed by and stars Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty, a negative asset manager at Life Magazine, Kristen Wiig as Cheryl Melhoff, Walter’s love interest, Adam Scott as Ted Hendricks, Walter’s newly appointed boss, Sean Penn as Sean O’Connell, a Photographer for Life, PattonOswald as Todd Maher, the voice on the other end of the phone from eHarmony, and Kathryn Hahn and Shirley Maclaine as Walter’s sister and Mother.

My Overall Take on the Movie: I thought this was a great movie with a powerful message. I was considering marking this as a spoiler but its something you learn very early on in the film and its almost necessary for this review to even work so I’m not marking it was a spoiler. In the movie Walter is in a job because its safe and that’s where he’s comfortable. Early on in the film it is revealed that in his younger years Walter was a kid with ambitions who used to sport a Mohawk and wanted to travel the world. But as he puts it in the movie his died on a Tuesday and that Thursday he got a haircut and a job at Papa John’s. So he is a man that gave up on his dreams to help support his family. To me the message of this movie is not to take life for granted because we don’t know how long we’ll be here. If you want to go out and travel the world for instance then do it because you aren’t getting any younger. This movie really inspired me to do the things I want to do and even though I set out to make these reviews before I saw the movie it definitely made me want to keep doing them. It also made me want to travel the world just because everything in the movie was so beautifully shot it just made travelling look like so much fun. This is a family friendly movie that isn’t boring because its so clean. This is a movie you could go see with anyone whether it be your mom or your in laws to your friends or girlfriend. It does not rely on obscene humor or jokes it is just a good wholesome movie that you should catch on the big screen.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Things I liked: I really enjoyed the cinematography of this movie. As I mentioned above everything was so beautifully shot that it just looked great. I love movies that inspire people to do things and I most definitely think this is one of those movies. My favorite aspect of this movie would have to the way that Sean Penn’s character was the guy who Walter wanted to be. He was the photographer who went on these crazy adventures and did all these things that Walter wanted to do. I really loved that aspect of the film.

Things I Didn’t Like: The product placement in this film was a little off putting, specifically the Papa John’s stuff. I get the eHarmony stuff because it seems to me that it’s better to get a real dating and use its real features as an aspect of the movie than to have made up some cheesy fake dating site with a stupid name, but why all the Papa John’s? It took me out of the movie at some points but not enough to make me dislike the film. So that was kind of weird but the thing I absolutely hated was Adam Scott’s beard! What was with that thing!? It has to be fake because if not I just feel extremely bad for him having to sport that thing during filming. I know it shouldn't bother me so much but Jesus Christ that thing is awful. 

         Final Verdict: See it in Theaters and Buy it on Blu Ray!!!

My Favorite Scene: The scene where Ben Stiller is in the elevator with Adam Scott and he’s holding the stretch Armstrong doll and Adam tries to take it from him and it turns into the epic fight scene where they’re skiing through the street on skis made of asphalt. I really liked this scene because Adam Scott’s character as a douche with a weird beard that made me uncomfortable so I enjoyed seeing him getting his ass kicked.