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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

…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.

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.

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.

The Icelandic landscapes look picture-postcard perfect and the varied scenery, as he crisscrosses the globe, will take your breath away.

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.