The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

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They are calling it the new 'Forrest Gump', a hit that will become a classic and yet for some reason it left me a little underwhelmed. I am not by any means saying I disliked the film because I didn't...far from it. I merely point out that I did not get the same feeling that I had with 'The Truman Show' or 'Forrest Gump' which I was told to expect. Putting comparisons aside for a moment however, it was a film that left me speechless.

My silence came not because the film blew me away so much I simply could not speak, not because it was that inexplicably good. It silenced me because the 2hrs and 5mins I saw, meant that on leaving the cinema I was quite comfortable in being inside my own head. I myself, was having my own little Walter Mitty moment which I suppose is testimony to the film itself.

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The film follows an ordinary man with a limitless imagination, who works in the print lab of Life magazine. He has the hots for co-worker Cheryl Melhoff but wouldn't dream of asking her out. He finds himself however, during the dissolution of Life magazine, willingly drifting off into his fantasies, emerging a man who takes us on an adventure we all dream of experiencing.

Lead Ben Stiller is an actor we all associate with playing the funny man and it was odd to see him 'playing it straight'. It felt forced. I felt almost as if we needed a less known actor to play the part of Walter, purely because it is about an underdog. It is about someone with no star quality, no ambition and no adventure and I feel almost as though Ben Stiller draws us away a little from the magic that could unfold with a lesser known face. However, his efforts are good enough to keep me hooked. His imagination is something I felt I shared with the character and so those moments that seem a little blank, a little stiff, are forgiven as we remember at heart, he is used to sitting in a dark room, organising negatives with only one other person for company. A particularly great moment for me is when he shows off his skateboarding tricks to Cheryl's son Rich, a passion clearly still exists within him. I do feel that Walter's adventure takes a little longer than I would have liked to get started but once it did, I didn't want it to end.

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Kirsten Wiig's performance as Cheryl Melhoff, is a believable one albeit a little unconventional when compared to her previous comedy roles. However, we see a sincerity in her performance we have not seen before. She conveys her responsibility for her son well, as well as natural and honest emotional responses to Walter's attempts at wooing her. We will her too, to find happiness and release in Walter.

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We follow Walter Mitty in a spontaneous adventure as he finds himself following the trail of Photographer, to retrieve a missing negative for the final Life Magazine front cover. It tosses him into a helicopter piloted by a drunken pilot and into an ocean surrounded by sharks. It takes him to Greenland, Iceland, to the Afghan Himalayas but perhaps his greatest conquest of all, is that it brings him closer to Cheryl Melhoff. There truly is some fantastic cinematography throughout the film, particularly within the long-boarding scene where we witness Ben Stiller board into the path of an erupting volcano. As he moves like a bird down the winding mountain road, not only are we treated to some beautiful landscape shots, we feel almost as if we are boarding with him, with some smooth follow-shots that move with every bend.

I also love the way that the film changes up the traditional phone call layout. The film needs us to become part of the adventure that Walter has only ever imagined and phone calls with cut-backs to offices and such, would have removed us from that. Instead, they sometimes opted to embed the words we need to hear in various landscapes and surroundings, beginning with their opening titles. It draws us into the imagination, into the adventure.

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It is almost a coming-of-age story that sees us sucked in by beauty and sees an eruption of confidence and spontaneity from Mitty. Perhaps my favourite scene in terms of character revelation, is that at the bottom of the mountain, when Mitty and photographer Sean O'Connell play football with the sherpas. It is the first time we see him engage in fun with other people, it is almost as though the clouds have parted and finally his dream-world transforms into reality. The setting sun as a canvas definitely helps the scene too!

It is a film that is easy to watch, one that lifts you almost without realising. I still stand by the fact that it took a little too long for the adventure to get started but it left me wanting to throw aside my bags and run into the night. It made my day a little lighter, and I think that's what Mitty is all about. It's about escape, it's about adventure and it's about reality and sometimes a beautiful thing happens, where they all align. It all starts with the little guy, who at the end, not only believes in 'Life' magazines' motto, but lives it too.

It's definitely a film to see with people you enjoy the company of. It will leave you discussing your dreams and ambitions together into the night. It might not be 'Forrest Gump' but it doesn't need to be. We are given the tale of an ordinary honest man, who has the adventure of a lifetime, something none of us can help but dream of. I'd give an 8/10.