Review of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) by Python2000 — 25 Jan 2014

I am very happy for Ben Stiller at the moment. He has finally been daring enough to venture out of the brainless teen comedy zone which he has been stuck in for the past few decades and made a very entertaining movie.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in my opinion should not be described as a family movie. Not because it isn't fun, because I expect adults will actually prefer it to children. This is probably down to the much more sophisticated type of humor used to get the laughs than in Stillers previous movies (basically the Focker movies).

I have to admit the style to the whole film varies in places. For example it goes from being a quite funny and sweet to being downright creepy and forced. If you have seen it already you will understand that I am of course talking about the Benjamin Button scene.

However this is not what you would call a major flaw and I found most of it to be harmlessly enjoyable. The funniest moment was undoubtedly how Walter deals with the aggressively unlikable character firing half of the people in Walter's company.

Kristen Wiig (who I usually find irritating) singing Space Oddity to inspire Walter to get off his ass, is also a brilliant scene. Not perfect, but satisfying by way of laughs and worth watching. Stiller has finally made an intelligent comedy.