Top Cast
Walter Mitty is an employee at Life magazine who frequently daydreams of fantastic adventures. Photojournalist Sean O'Connell has sent a special photograph that he says captures the "Quintessence" of Life magazine and that it should be used for the cover of the magazine's final issue. Mitty works in the negative assets department, and has never lost a photo in his sixteen years of work at Life magazine, but negative 25 is missing. Using the other negatives as clues Mitty decides to go in search of Sean O'Connell and find the missing negative.
Critic Consensus
Critical reception for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is mixed, with scores skewing toward the lower half and a divided response to Ben Stiller's directorial effort. Nearly all reviewers praised the film's stunning cinematography and sweeping international landscapes as undeniable highlights. However, a majority of critics found the screenplay weak and predictable, with the transition between fantasy and reality feeling clumsy, the pacing slow, and the emotional payoff insufficient to match the visual ambition.
12 reviews · 5 positive · 6 mixed
AI-generated summary of 12 critic reviews · may contain errors
Report inaccuracyCritic Reviews (12)
"There's nothing that comes as a surprise in Walter Mitty, least of all the tiresomely predictable daydreams he goes into as the film opens. And his discovery of his true self happens with too few wrinkles, and with too unlikely a hinge, to make an impression."Read full review ↗
"...doesn't have the lightness of touch you associate with a whimsical Wes Anderson picture. It does have a few cheeky moments - like one in which Mitty shows off some killer skateboarding moves, that Cheryl unfortunately misses - but not enough to make it a genuinely enjoyable watch. In the end it comes off as an indulgent vanity project for a misguided star who thinks two hours of his adventure-holiday videos would make for charming cinema viewing."Read full review ↗
"There are a couple of sequences where the film becomes completely over the top in Mitty's daydream cutaways, if only the rest of the film were as engaging and intelligent as those two scenes."Read full review ↗
"Beautifully shot and easy on the eyes, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is thoroughly engaging. Never before have I seen a room full of some of the sternest critics in town refusing to leave their seats, expecting more as the titles begin to roll in."Read full review ↗
"The Icelandic landscapes look picture-postcard perfect and the varied scenery, as he crisscrosses the globe, will take your breath away."Read full review ↗
"To begin with this reviewer is no great admirer of Ben Stiller. But in The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, which incidentally is also directed by him, he does an excellent job putting to shame his earlier directors for not using him correctly. He's not only a comedian."Read full review ↗
"The movie is a visual treat. You get immersed in the sublime beauty all through the film. Walter's life is shown with changing color tones. However, the audience will get the feeling that the ending leaves something to be desired. Overall the film is a visual adventure about life."Read full review ↗
"Ben Stiller is perfect as Mitty. His charismatic performance is appealing and offers a pleasant break from his usual slapstick roles. He has done a great job as a director, but unfortunately the script by Steve Conrad is not perfect enough to make "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" an exceptionally good film."Read full review ↗
"It takes a while to figure out the direction in which the film is going. But once that is clear, there aren't too many surprises left. So all you have to do is enjoy the gorgeous landscapes because there is precious little otherwise as far as the story is concerned, which takes it self a bit too seriously."Read full review ↗
"Visually brilliant, the film fails and turns out to be complex and heavy at times when all it needs to do is actually lighten up and have some fun!"Read full review ↗
"The film is very well shot and has a tricky screenplay. The problem though is that Stiller doesn't transport smoothly from real life to fantasy, making it slow and boring."Read full review ↗
"As The Secret Life of Walter Mitty shifts gears to make Mitty fit a more stereotypical mould of "cool", the gorgeous cinematography and mellow, indie-rich soundtrack become the film's saving graces."Read full review ↗
Cast & Crew
Cast
- Ben Stiller · Walter Mitty
- Kristen Wiig · Cheryl Melhoff
- Sean Penn · Sean O'Connell
- Shirley MacLaine · Edna Mitty
- Adam Scott · Ted Hendricks
- Kathryn Hahn · Odessa Mitty
- Patton Oswalt · Todd Maher
- Joey Slotnick
- Stuart Cornfeld
- Samuel Goldwyn, Jr.
- John Goldwyn
- Steven Conrad
- Theodore Shapiro
- Stuart Dryburgh
- Greg Hayden
Director
Screenplay
Music
Cinematography
Editing
Details
- Release Date
- 3 January 2014
- Runtime
- 114 min
- Language
- English
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