| The Secret Life of Walter Mitty | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Ben Stiller |
| Screenplay by | Steve Conrad |
| Based on | "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" byJames Thurber |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Stuart Dryburgh |
| Edited by | Greg Hayden |
| Music by | |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 114 minutes[3] |
| Countries | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $90 million[4] |
| Box office | $188.3 million[5] |
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a 2013adventurecomedy-drama film directed, co-produced by and starringBen Stiller and written bySteve Conrad. The film also starsKristen Wiig,Shirley MacLaine,Adam Scott,Kathryn Hahn, andSean Penn.[6][7] The secondfilm adaptation ofJames Thurber's 1939 short storyof the same name, following the1947 film of the same name,[8] it follows amaladaptive daydreamer named Walter Mitty on his quest to find a missing negative print and its elusive photojournalist forLife magazine's final print issue.
Following a tumultuousproduction hell that spanned multiple studios, directors and leading actors dating back to 1994, it finally found traction in 2011 with Stiller as director and star of the film under20th Century Fox andSamuel Goldwyn Films. The film premiered at theNew York Film Festival on October 5, 2013,[9] and was theatrically released on December 25, 2013, in North America to generally mixed reception, with high praise for Stiller's direction, cinematography, and itssoundtrack featuringJosé González. It was chosen by theNational Board of Review as one of thetop ten films of 2013.[10]
Walter Mitty is anegative assets manager atLIFE magazine living alone inNew York City. Hechronically daydreams and has a secret crush on Cheryl Melhoff, a coworker. Walter attempts to contact Cheryl viaeHarmony, but eHarmony customer service agent Todd Mahar explains that Walter's account profile is not filled out completely: the "been there" and "done that" sections are blank.
Walter works with legendary photojournalist Sean O'Connell, although they have never met in person. At work, Walter receives a negative roll from Sean, as well as a wallet as a gift in appreciation of Walter's work over the years. A letter from Sean explains that he believes negative #25 captures the "quintessence of life" and should be used for the cover of themagazine's final print issue before it becomes exclusively digital. However, the negative #25 is missing from the roll. Sean also sent atelegram to LIFE, with his cover recommendation. When Ted Hendricks, the obnoxious manager of the magazine's transition, asks to see #25, Walter stalls and lies that it is being processed, worried about being fired. Walter then asks Cheryl for help in contacting O'Connell. Walter looks to the other negatives for clues to Sean's location - water, a thumb, and a mysterious curved object.
Walter and Hernando, his assistant, on close examination, see a reflection in the water, which is the name of a ship registered inGreenland. Walter reluctantly takes a plane to Greenland.
A bartender inNuuk explains that Sean left on a ship. To reach him, Walter would need to go on the postal helicopter, whose pilot is drunk. Walter recognizes the pilot's thumb from one of the negatives, and after hesitating, joins the pilot on a trip to bring supplies to the ship. Walter accidentally jumps into ice-cold, shark-infested waters, losing the ship's supplies and preventing radio communication when he finally comes aboard. There, Walter learns that Sean departed the ship a few days earlier and discovers from notes on wrapping paper for aclementine cake Sean left behind that he is heading toIceland to photograph the volcanoEyjafjallajökull.
The ship brings Walter to Iceland. He then bikes, skateboards, and runs through the Icelandic countryside to find Sean, but just misses him as the volcano erupts. Dejected, he returns home.
Hendricks assumes that Walter misplaced the negative and fires him. He tries to visit Cheryl, but spots her ex-husband and leaves before talking to her. Walter visits his mother and throws away the wallet from Sean. To his surprise, Walter recognizes the curve of the piano in his mother's house while looking at the last negative. When asked, she tells Walter that she met Sean and baked him the clementine cake. She had told Walter earlier, but he was daydreaming.
Walter figures out from the notes that Sean is in the AfghanHimalayas and finds him photographing a raresnow leopard. When asked about the negative, Sean explains that, attempting to be playful, he had placed the negative in the wallet. He decides not to tell Walter what the picture actually depicts. When Walter returns to America, the airport security atLos Angeles detains him for arriving fromAfghanistan. To verify his identity, Walter calls the only person he knows in Los Angeles: Todd, from eHarmony, who has kept in contact during Walter's travels. The two chat and Todd expresses admiration for how adventurous Walter appears.
Walter receives the wallet from his mother, who had retrieved it from the trash, and finally obtains the negative but chooses not to look at it. Emboldened, he delivers it to LIFE's offices and berates Hendricks for disrespecting the staff that made the magazine so honored.
Walter reunites with Cheryl, and thanks her for inspiring him on his journey. Cheryl eagerly asks about his adventures and tells him that her ex-husband had only been at her house to help with repairs. Walking along the street, they see the final print issue on sale at a newsstand, and on its cover, they see the photograph from #25 for the first time: it shows Walter sitting outside of the LIFE building, examining acontact sheet; the magazine is dedicated to LIFE's staff, and Sean's note actually referred to "quintessence of LIFE". Walter and Cheryl continue their walk holding hands.
ProducerSamuel Goldwyn, Jr., whosefather produced the 1947 film adaptation, conceived the idea of doing aremake in 1994; he hadJim Carrey in mind for the title role.Walt Disney Pictures was eager to purchase theremake rights, but Goldwyn instead choseNew Line Cinema,[11] which had a positive working relationship with Carrey onDumb and Dumber andThe Mask (both 1994).[12] New Line Cinema bought the rights in 1995 with the understanding thatThe Samuel Goldwyn Company would be involved in creative decisions.[13]Babaloo Mandel andLowell Ganz turned in the first draft of the screenplay in July 1997.Ron Howard entered negotiations to direct the same month, and to cover producing duties withBrian Grazer andImagine Entertainment.[14] Howard and Imagine Entertainment eventually left the project in favor ofEDtv,[11] andThe Secret Life of Walter Mitty languished indevelopment hell over the challenges of using a contemporary storyline.[12]
In May 1999, New Line Cinema hiredThe Mask directorChuck Russell to rewrite thescript and serve as Howard's replacement. Filming was set to begin in early 2000, but was pushed back.[12] Around this time,Peter Tolan worked on rewrites.[11] In May 2001, Goldwyn filed a lawsuit against New Line Cinema for breach of contract. Goldwyn claimed that the studio extended their 1995 deal until May 2001, but then announced that it wanted to transfer the rights for the remake to another company and have Goldwyn surrender his creative input.[13] In November 2002, New Line Cinema was forced to revert the film rights back to Goldwyn, who won his lawsuit and took the property toParamount Pictures.[13] During pre-production discussions between Paramount andDreamWorks onLemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (which starred Carrey),Steven Spielberg, head of DreamWorks, rekindled interest in working with Carrey; the duo previously consideredMeet the Parents, but the outing fell apart.[11] In May 2003, Spielberg agreed to direct,[11] and brought in DreamWorks to co-financeThe Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Paramount (which would acquire DreamWorks in 2006).[15]
By November 2003,Zach Helm was rewriting the script,[16] but Spielberg and DreamWorks vacated the film in April 2004 in favor ofWar of the Worlds andMunich. "The goal is to go back to the short story and capture not only the content but the original spirit," producerJohn Goldwyn (son of Samuel) toldThe Hollywood Reporter. ScreenwriterRichard LaGravenese entered discussion to write a new script following Spielberg's departure.[17] Samuel Goldwyn commented that LaGravenese's script had a momentous and unique approach compared to others. "I'd always felt that unless we got a great script, the movie disintegrates into a series of wonderful gags," Goldwyn explained. "Writers always fixated on that. [Richard] worked for 10 months on umpteen drafts, and he solved it."[18] In March 2005, Paramount hiredMark Waters to direct LaGravenese's script forThe Secret Life of Walter Mitty,[19] but Carrey had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.[18] He was soon replaced byOwen Wilson.[20]
Despite not having a final budget, Paramount scheduled a December 12, 2005, start date because their option on the remake rights was to end one week later; they would lose the rights if they did not start filming before December 20.[18] Wilson dropped out in October 2005 over creative differences.The Hollywood Reporter also speculated thatThe Secret Life of Walter Mitty began to falter after Paramount failed to cast a female lead to star opposite Wilson.Scarlett Johansson had emerged as the front-runner for the role of Cheryl Melhoff after screen testing with Wilson earlier in October, but a deal was never signed with Johansson.[21][22] Paramount executivesBrad Grey andGail Berman decided to putThe Secret Life of Walter Mitty inturnaround in November 2005.[23] Goldwyn found favor at20th Century Fox and, in May 2007, it was announced thatMike Myers was attached to star in the title role.Jay Kogen was hired to write a new script that would be specifically tailored for Myers.[24]
In April 2010,Sacha Baron Cohen was offered and accepted the lead role.[25] Later that month,The Pursuit of Happyness writerSteven Conrad was hired to pen the screenplay,[26] withGore Verbinski announced as director in June 2010.[27][28][29] Verbinski would later drop out of directing but remained as executive producer on the film.
In April 2011, it was announced thatBen Stiller had been cast in the lead role, though no director was attached.[30] The following July, it was announced that Stiller was also going to direct the film.[31]
In January 2012, it was announced thatKristen Wiig would play the female lead,[32] withShirley MacLaine to play Walter's mother.[33] This was followed by reports in February thatPatton Oswalt andAdam Scott had joined the film.[34][35] In April 2012,Kathryn Hahn was cast as Odessa, Walter's sister, andJosh Charles was cast as the ex-husband of Kristen Wiig's character,[36] though he was replaced by Kai Lennox. Later that month,Sean Penn was cast in what was described as a "small but pivotal supporting role"[37] as photojournalist Sean O'Connell.
The portions of the film set in Nuuk, Greenland, were in fact shot inStykkishólmur, a village on theSnæfellsnes peninsula inIceland, andHöfn, a village in southeast Iceland. Later sequences set in Stykkishólmur were actually filmed inSeyðisfjörður. The sequences where Walter Mitty follows Sean to Afghanistan were also filmed in Iceland, at theSkogafoss waterfall and inVatnajökull National Park.[38]
During the skateboarding scene in Central Park, pro skaterRodney Mullen served as Ben Stiller's stunt double.[39]
In April 2013, nearly 20 minutes of footage was presented by Fox atCinemaCon in Las Vegas, followed by atheatrical trailer release in July, both of which began to spark awards speculation.[40][41][42]
The film made itsworld premiere as the Centerpiece Gala presentation at theNew York Film Festival on October 5, 2013.[9] It was also selected to serve as the Centerpiece Gala presentation at the 2013AFI Film Festival.[43]
20th Century Fox hired filmmakerCasey Neistat to make a promotional video based on the theme of "live your dreams", but Neistat suggested instead to spend the budget on bringing disaster relief to the Philippines in the wake ofTyphoon Haiyan. Fox agreed and gave him a budget of $25,000.[44][45]
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was released onDVD andBlu-ray on April 15, 2014, by20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.[46]
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty received mixed reviews from critics.Review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 52% based on reviews from 198 critics, with an average rating of 6.00/10. The site's consensus reads: "It doesn't lack for ambition, butThe Secret Life of Walter Mitty fails to back up its grand designs with enough substance to anchor the spectacle."[47]Metacritic gives the film aweighted average score of 54 out of 100 based on reviews from 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[48] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film a B+ rating.[49]
Glenn Kenny ofRogerEbert.com gave the film a scathing review, writing that it "grated on my nerves...while everything Stiller attempts here has a real professional polish, whatMitty lacks is any sense of what life might actually be like for the kind of 'ordinary man' Mitty represents."[50] Peter Debruge ofVariety magazine criticized the film for lacking the satirical tone of the original story, comparing the film to "a feature-length 'Just Do It' ad" for the middle-aged audience the film was targeting. Debruge noted that the script downplayed the comedy, and that a scene inspired byThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button shows the film could have been made funnier, but that the more serious emotional dimension ultimately made the film feel more substantial.[51]
The film had its share of admirers.Peter Travers ofRolling Stone gave the film a positive review, saying "In his uniquely funny and unexpectedly tender movie, Stiller takes us on a personal journey of lingering resonance."[52] Joe Neumaier ofNew York Daily awarded the film five out of five stars, saying "The story Stiller tells manages to float in a most peculiar, satisfying way."[53] Political radio show host and film criticMichael Medved was also positive concerning the film, calling it "one of the feel-good movies of the year."
The film was criticized for theproduct placement of several brands which featured prominently in the storyline.[54][55]
In 2016,Rolling Stone magazine asked readers to choose their top 10 Ben Stiller movies.The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was rated as Stiller's third-best film.[56]
In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition ofThe New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 278.[57]
| Award/Film festival | Year | Category | Recipients | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Board of Review[10] | 2013 | Top Ten Films | The Secret Life of Walter Mitty | Won |
| Satellite Awards[58] | 2014 | Best Cinematography | Stuart Dryburgh | Nominated |
| Best Original Score | Theodore Shapiro | Nominated | ||
| Location Managers Guild Awards[59] | 2014 | Outstanding Location Feature Film | The Secret Life of Walter Mitty | Won |
| Costume Designers Guild Awards[60] | 2014 | Excellence in Contemporary Film | Sarah Edwards | Nominated |
| Saturn Awards[61] | June 2014 | Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film | The Secret Life of Walter Mitty | Nominated |
| Saturn Award for Best Actor | Ben Stiller | Nominated | ||
| Key Art Awards[62] | 2013 | Best Audio Visual Technique | The Secret Life of Walter Mitty | Won |
| Best Trailer | Runner-Up | |||
| New York Film Festival[62] | 2013 | Best Film | Nominated | |
| Visual Effects Society Awards | 2014 | Outstanding Supporting Effects in a Feature Motion Picture | Guillaume Rocheron, Kurt Williams, Monette Dubin, and Ivan Moran | Nominated |
The film features the following songs:
The song "Space Oddity" byDavid Bowie plays a significant role throughout the film. Walter Mitty is referred to mockingly as "Major Tom" by his new boss, Hendricks, in reference to the astronaut Major Tom in "Space Oddity", due to his frequent daydreaming: the boss interprets the line "ground control to Major Tom" as akin to "Earth to Walter; come in Walter". Cheryl later tells Walter that Hendricks misunderstands the song, as "it’s about courage and venturing into the unknown".[63]
The song is featured in a crucial scene in which Mitty decides to leap onto a helicopter after imagining Cheryl singing the song. Stiller talked about the importance of "Space Oddity" in that scene during an interview in which he said that, "I felt like the way it fits into the story, we got to this point and this scene which was sort of how the fantasy and reality come together for Walter, and that was what that came out of. That song, and what he mentioned in his head, and what he imagines and what he does, it all just seemed to come together over that song."[64]
"I did test her for something, but not Mean Girls — I actually tested Scarlett for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, when I was going to direct it with Owen Wilson in the lead, and she definitely would have booked the part. We had four really big actresses test — I'm not going to say who else — and she came in and nailed it, and Owen and I were in love with her. But then Hurricane Katrina hit and we ended up losing our sets, and we tried to reconfigure it for Toronto and we couldn't do it."
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |