Just recently I saw the Ben Stiller version of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty".
I say the Ben Stiller version, because I knew I had seen this move before, but it had been a long time ago. I was right, I had seen this movie when I was a young man and watched it on T.V., it starred Danny Kay and besides the title and the fact that Danny Kay worked in a publishing house there were no similarities to the two movies.
The current version, which came out last year is set in LIFE magazine on the eve of its' going to an online service.
Stiller as Walter Mitty is an everyman, he does his job very well but has done nothing amazing with his life. Mitty is a dreamer, he zones out and sees himself doing heroic and great things as many of us dream. Except in his dreams he is timid and shy and has difficulty in standing up for himself of trusting himself.
He finds himself in the midst of a crisis, the negative for the final cover for LIFE magazine in missing, he has to locate it and begins a epic adventure which changes him forever.
He also falls madly in love with a coworker, Cheryl Melhoff played by kristen Wing, a single mother who is the opposite of how she portrays herself on E-Harmony.com.
The two stories intertwine as Walter goes on a journey to find the lost negative he also finds himself, he finds the 'hero within' as Joseph Campbel described the aspect that we all have and are called to at a point in our life when we have to take a risk greater than our self.
The film is slow at the beginning but as it moves on we are drawn deeper into the nexus of these characters.
Besides Walter and Cheryl we have Kathryn Hahn who is Walters sister Odessa, who dreams of playing Rizzo in Grease, Shirley MacClaine who plays Walters' mother and Sean Penn as Sean O Connell the illusive photographer who Walter has traveled around the world to track down and find the missing negative 25, the negative for the last cover of LIFE.
Ben Stiller did a remarable job of directing this film and Steve Conrad did an excellent developing the screen play based on the short story by James Thurber.
This is a fun and timely movie that makes us look within and ask if we are following our bliss or just letting life pass us by.
5 out of 5 Stars.
I say the Ben Stiller version, because I knew I had seen this move before, but it had been a long time ago. I was right, I had seen this movie when I was a young man and watched it on T.V., it starred Danny Kay and besides the title and the fact that Danny Kay worked in a publishing house there were no similarities to the two movies.
The current version, which came out last year is set in LIFE magazine on the eve of its' going to an online service.
Stiller as Walter Mitty is an everyman, he does his job very well but has done nothing amazing with his life. Mitty is a dreamer, he zones out and sees himself doing heroic and great things as many of us dream. Except in his dreams he is timid and shy and has difficulty in standing up for himself of trusting himself.
He finds himself in the midst of a crisis, the negative for the final cover for LIFE magazine in missing, he has to locate it and begins a epic adventure which changes him forever.
He also falls madly in love with a coworker, Cheryl Melhoff played by kristen Wing, a single mother who is the opposite of how she portrays herself on E-Harmony.com.
The two stories intertwine as Walter goes on a journey to find the lost negative he also finds himself, he finds the 'hero within' as Joseph Campbel described the aspect that we all have and are called to at a point in our life when we have to take a risk greater than our self.
The film is slow at the beginning but as it moves on we are drawn deeper into the nexus of these characters.
Besides Walter and Cheryl we have Kathryn Hahn who is Walters sister Odessa, who dreams of playing Rizzo in Grease, Shirley MacClaine who plays Walters' mother and Sean Penn as Sean O Connell the illusive photographer who Walter has traveled around the world to track down and find the missing negative 25, the negative for the last cover of LIFE.
Ben Stiller did a remarable job of directing this film and Steve Conrad did an excellent developing the screen play based on the short story by James Thurber.
This is a fun and timely movie that makes us look within and ask if we are following our bliss or just letting life pass us by.
5 out of 5 Stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment