Confronting the mundane in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

A thousand apologies, but I had to take an unavoidable hiatus. We are back, and it’s Fi’s Favourites. When looking at a film, there are typically two things that cause me to be suspicious: one is when the lead actor is also the director and the other a remake of a classic. That is exactly what this film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Walter Mitty), - a 2013 remake - is.

Walter Mitty is based on a short story by James Thurber, and it was made into a film in 1947, directed by Norman Z McLeod. The 1947 film focuses more on the farcical fun in the story. The premise follows regular Joe Soap Walter, who gets lost in his fantasies of a more exciting life, which can get him into trouble in the real world.

Despite the film having two of my red flags, I enjoyed it. I find it uplifting and meaningful and a technically sound movie. The theme of the classic’s 2013 remake is the same, but the feeling it wishes to evoke is different.

When his workplace is taken over by a new boss who notices Walter’s tendencies to escape into a dream world and cruelly mocks him, Walter and his colleagues are on the brink of losing their jobs. Walter goes on a mission to find a photograph that may be able to help Walter and his colleagues. He also dares to talk to a woman at work who has caught his eye.

As I said, the 1947 film is focused on fun and excitement. Here the plot is less about chaos and fun and more about how a bad situation can cause you to become brave and live the life you have always wanted to, or rather live the life you have already been living in your head.

As a younger man, Walter had dreams of travel and exploration, but family commitments and life got in the way, and plans got postponed and then forgotten. The film has themes of family, bravery, the unknown, finding meaning in life and carving out a place in the world, and it handles all of the pieces with fun and humour.

However, one theme that strikes me is that it is often easier to live the life we want to in our heads rather than do it. How many of us are living the life we dream of? I’m sure most of us do not deal with a profound topic, but an important one. Sometimes it is all about that first step. Sometimes we take it ourselves, and sometimes we are forced into taking it. It is always the hardest step to take, making it the most important.

Another aspect of the film that surprised me, as it had a relatively inexperienced director, was the visual aids that were so impactful to the story. Walter’s dreams are not separate from his real life; they intertwine with one another, and the film shows us this. It shows us the cross-over between the two worlds. This is done using scene transitions that mix the two worlds with good use of CGI.

This emphasises how Walter struggles so much with his life that his dream life takes over his thoughts. These overpowering thoughts push him into action. The people around him can’t always grasp where he goes when he isn’t present, but we, the viewers, can see how far away he is, and we cheer for him to break through.

This is Fi’s Favourite because it is visually and thematically a delight. It is a simple family film centred around fun but manages to go deeper than that, and rather than make us root for the protagonist; it causes us to question how we all live our own lives.

"Beautiful things don't ask for attention"