The Secret Life of Walter Mitty but not Forest Gump

            I heard about The Secret Life of Walter Mitty through a friend. She was complaining about how people were already saying that it was the new age Forest Gump, but more on that later. I quite enjoyed this movie and its feel good, you can accomplish anything, way that it has.

            Walter Mitty, Ben Stiller, is a negative assets manager for Life magazine. But now the magazine has been bought out and is being turned into an on line magazine. He has been trusted with the negative for the final cover, but there’s just one problem. He can’t seem to find it. So come join Walter as he embarks on a great journey to find the ever elusive negative 25.

            The early reviews for this movie said that it was a modern day Forest Gump and that upset a lot of people. However, people’s complaints that Walter Mitty was copying Forest Gump aren’t very fair either, seeing as how this version was a remake of the original film in 1947. This clearly makes the case that, if anything, Forest Gump copied Walter Mitty. However, after seeing the 2013 version I see minimal connections between Walter Mitty and Forest Gump. The only real connection being that they are both about men who have a problem, of sorts, that they have to overcome to get through their life. That’s it. When I see these two movies I really don’t connect them at all. They are separate entities. Walter Mitty had an interesting feel to how it was shot. The daydream sequences in the beginning blend very well with what’s really going on, so you find yourself questioning if this is really happening. But then as the movie progresses the daydreams become more obvious and you just see them for what Walter needs them to do for him. Another thing about the daydreams is that they sound like they are coming from our hero’s mind. The things that people say and do are just like what it would seem that Walter would actually be thinking. The music is also great in this movie. It’s all original score, written for this film. Director Ben Stiller felt that the score gave a voice to Walter, so whenever there is humming in the score it’s like the inner part of Walter talking. Jose Gonzalez, who performed the songs, actually said that the humming parts came from him just getting a feel for the music before he knew the words. As a part of his process he would hum to get the melody and such and Stiller thought it was great so it stayed in. I do have to nitpick one thing about this movie though and that is cell phone coverage. I can understand Walter’s phone working in some of the places he uses it, but it’s a real stretch for others. Clearly you can see the pros strongly outweigh the cons on this movie so do yourself a favor and, if you haven’t seen this movie, check it out.

Curious about this movie? Check out the preview for yourself.
Come back next time to see the review on In my Sleep

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