The patron saint for dreamers everywhere makes quite an impression on the big screen.
In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” Ben Stiller goes all out to make the most out of James Thurber’s 1939 short story. Stiller directs the grand tale of a guy who screenwriter Steve Conrad has placed in all sorts of adventures. And Stiller plays Mitty quite well as a quiet guy who starts in a Life magazine job called, ironically, negative assets, and ends up as a man who’s positively found his own path to the top of the word.
It’s as pretty a picture as you’ll see. The fantasy effects when Walter jumps through windows in his daydreams are startling and realistic. The adventure effects when he starts jumps out of a plane in his real life are even more shocking and vivid. And the landscapes of Greenland and Iceland and yes, Manhattan, are simply gorgeous all along the way.
