Many of us remember having to read the short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in high school. I remember it especially, because that was the class taught by a snotty bourgeois woman my friends and I nicknamed the "Beluga Whale". Ben Stiller's adaptation of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty really does not have much to do with the original story outside of it being about a daydreamer named Walter Mitty. In the film, Ben Stiller plays Walter Mitty, the head of the negatives processing department at Life Magazine. He likes to daydream. A lot. He also has a crush on the new girl at work, Cheryl. But soon enough Walter's life is turned upside down when it comes out that Life has been bought out, and will be dropping print in favor of the internet. For the final cover, Walter has been given a special photograph by this crazy and rugged photographer. The only problem is that the photograph is missing. In order to keep his job, as well as prove himself to the woman he loves, Walter sets off on a globe trotting adventure to track down the photographer and find out what happened to the photo. This is a schmaltzy movie, no doubt about it, but it is schmaltzy in a way that always just manages to avoid being irritating. Even the frequent product placement somehow manages to avoid being irritating. Instead, this is a very endearing movie. Not a great one, or an artistic masterpiece by any means, but a soul-satisfying, and fun movie.
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