Director: Ben Stiller
Talent: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Shirley MacLaine
Release Date: 26th December 2013
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is an evolution for Ben Stiller both as an actor and a film-maker. He gives a surprisingly subdued and affecting performance in the titular role, as a man who escapes from his mundane existence in spectacular daydreams where he becomes the adventurer he longs to be. Walter works for Life Magazine, and is tasked with processing the cover photo for their final print issue. When the negative disappears, his quest to retrieve it forms the basis of an incredible cinematic experience: Walter increasingly strays from his comfort zone and his fantasies recede, revealing a world no less extraordinary for being real. Amidst the bombastic sequences that make up most of the film’s running time are quiet moments of carefully sustained optimism, where Stiller successfully achieves the balancing act of being sentimental without becoming cloying. The result is the work of an artist fully in control of his abilities. – FD
