"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is the 2nd adaptation of the short-story with the same name by James Thurber. Walter (Ben Stiller) leads a very uneventful life though he frequently lapses into quite vivid and exciting daydreams, which often feature his office crush Cheryl (Kristen Wiig). Major changes at the magazine "Life," where Walter is the long-term employee in charge of photographs, throw Walter's life in turmoil especially when it appears that he has lost the negative that will be the magazine's final cover. Walter decides to track down the globe-trotting photographer, Sean (Sean Penn), in search for the missing negative.
Having read Thurber's story years ago, I watched this film with some expectations. Overall I thought the film gives a good try at bringing the story to the big-screen with a lot of exciting visuals and beautiful scenery. I also liked how Walter's loved ones and Cheryl in the film treat him given his obvious zoning out. Adam Scott, who plays Walter's boss/bad guy, makes the most of his role as the foil. However, I didn't like how disjointed the film feels - there seems to be a pull towards action, drama, romance, and comedy all within the film and the result is that there are moments and key scenes that feel really out of place. Also there is a lot of product placement within the film and this also adds to the disjointed feeling particularly when the characters seem to go out of their way to mention a product (ahem, Papa John's and e-Harmony).
Overall, there's not the charm or bite from the original story in the film and the commercial feel to it and disjointed writing/directing distract from some beautiful scenery - B-.
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