THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY DVD (2013)

SYNOPSIS: Ben Stiller directs and stars in THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, James Thurber's classic story of a day-dreamer who escapes his anonymous life by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. When his job along with that of his co-worker are threatened, Walter takes action in the real world embarking on a global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined.

MOVIE REVIEW:

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty happens to be the last movie I watched in theaters last year and I simply adored it! Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I feel so satisfied, inspired and amazed by a movie and for a start; you wouldn’t have expected that it came from comedian Ben Stiller.

Still took over the long in limbo project from the hands of people liked Jim Carrey, Steven Spielberg, Mike Meyers and Owen Wilson to direct and star in the adaptation of James Thurber’s 1939 short story. Stiller plays Walter Mitty, a somewhat reserved negative assets manager working in the basement of LIFE magazine. He spends his days daydreaming, has a crush on fellow worker Cheryl (Kristen Wiig) and a sarcastic boss Ted Hendricks (Adam Scott) breathing down his neck over a missing negative submitted by reclusive acclaimed photographer Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn).  

Walter Mitty is one of those feel-good dramas that happen to tiptoe around the arthouse genre. It’s hard to tell if Stiller and scriber Steven Conrad (The Pursuit of Happyness) intended to present the story this way but the daydreaming sequences, which happened pretty often in the beginning of the movie tend to be much of a distraction. The story begins to pickup when Walter decides to abandon his monotonous lifestyle to go on a global adventure to look for Sean O’Connell. It started with a silly CGI enhanced shark attack to an exhilarating skateboard ride in Iceland and end in the Himalaya. The story probably benefitted more if the character of O’Connell remains a mystery still it’s always nice to see Penn on the screen.   

Stiller is also blessed with a talented cast that includes SNL regular Wiig, Patton Oswalt as the customer service officer of a dating website, Academy Award winner Shirley MacLaine as Walter’s mum and Kathryn Hahn as his obnoxious sister. Theodore Shapiro provides the year’s best score (solely my opinion) with songs contributed by Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men and Swedish folk-pop singer Jose Gonzalez and of course amazing cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh.

Though Stiller has a much successful career as an actor, his directing efforts, which previously include Zoolander and Topic Thunder, seem to reach a whole new level with the release of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Hardly a pretentious movie and not one to read any deeper, this is a journey that I would love to accompany Walter anytime. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The designers painstakingly replicate the look of the movie based on the now defunct LIFE magazine in The look of life. 


Composer Theodore Shapiro shares with viewers the process of creating the music in The music of Walter Mitty


Sights and sounds of production: Skateboarding through Iceland
 takes us behind-the-scenes of the skateboarding sequence shot in Iceland.

Lastly there’s a Gallery: Reference Photography.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

This is a bluish-tinted but beautiful looking movie presented on DVD. If you expect a rather muted movie then the provided Dolby Digital 5.1 will surprise you during selected scenes especially Walter’s daydreaming ones.  

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee