The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
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A daydreaming employee embarks on a real-world odyssey to recover a missing photograph for a magazine's final print issue.
The story
Walter Mitty is a negative assets manager at Life magazine in New York City who suffers from chronic daydreaming. When a legendary photojournalist, Sean O'Connell, sends a crucial negative—believed to capture the 'quintessence of life'—it goes missing. To save the magazine's final print issue before it transitions to digital, Walter must navigate a series of increasingly adventurous situations. He travels to Greenland and Iceland, following a trail of clues left by O'Connell, while attempting to overcome his own internal hesitations and the pressure from his demanding manager, Ted Hendricks.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Walter Mitty, a daydreaming employee at Life magazine, is tasked with finding a missing negative (#25) from a legendary photojournalist, Sean O'Connell. The image is intended for the magazine's final print issue. Following clues, Walter travels to Greenland and then to Iceland, where he faces physical dangers and extreme environments. After a series of mishaps, he eventually tracks Sean down in the Afghan Himalayas. There, he learns the negative was hidden in a wallet. Upon returning to the United States, Walter faces a bureaucratic hurdle at airport security but eventually reunites with his mother and his coworker, Cheryl Melhoff. He ultimately delivers the negative to the magazine, where it is revealed to be a photo of him outside the building. The film ends with Walter and Cheryl walking together, having embraced the reality of his journey.
- First release year
- 2013
- Runtime (minutes)
- 114
- Production countries
- Australia; United Kingdom; United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Ben Stiller
- Writers
- Steve Conrad · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Ben Stiller · Walter Mitty; Kristen Wiig · Cheryl Melhoff; Shirley MacLaine · Edna Mitty; Adam Scott · Ted Hendricks; Kathryn Hahn · Odessa Mitty; Sean Penn · Sean O'Connell
- Genres
- adventure; comedy-drama
- Themes
- reality vs. fantasy; courage; the transition from analog to digital
- Tone and mood
- adventure; tender
- Premise and plot tags
- road trip; quest; coming-of-age
- Source material / true-story basis
- James Thurber's 1939 short story
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its direction, cinematography, and soundtrack, though some criticized its lack of satirical tone. It has since gained a cult following.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 52% · scale: percentage · review count: 198; Metacritic · score: 54 · scale: out of 100 · review count: 39
- Awards and nominations
- top ten films of 2013 · National Board of Review · 2013 · win
- Production trivia
- The film was shot entirely on analog film.; The song 'Space Oddity' plays a significant role in the narrative.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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