The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

The movie I chose to watch outside of class was The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a 2013 romantic drama based on a 1939 short story of the same title. The movie details the life of Walter (played by Ben Stiller), a man with an unfulfilling, average life, who dreams of abandoning his everyday life and doing something extraordinary. He regularly "spaces out" in the middle of the day, imagining intricate scenarios in which he acts heroically or achieves something great. He is romantically interested in Cheryll (played by Kristin Wiig), a woman he knows from his work at the major magazine Life. His fantasies often involve his heroic act impressing Cheryll and the two of them falling in love. In real life, however, Walter is too shy to talk to Cheryll, and is often bullied by his coworkers because of his social awkwardness and constant "space outs". When Walter's job requires him to track down a traveling photographer or be fired, Walter jumps at the opportunity to make something more of his life. He goes on an adventure through Greenland, Iceland, and the Himalayas, eventually finding his man at the top of a Himalayan mountain. He returns home a new man, makes a romantic connection with Cheryll, and sees that Life magazine has used a picture of him for the front page of their final printed issue. One thing that really stood out to me during the movie was the Walter's transformation from an "average Joe" to someone truly remarkable. The vast majority of us live fairly average lives (well, average by 1st world standards), and we all dream of breaking free of the mundane and making our lives extraordinary. We all can see ourselves as Walter Mitty in one way or another, and this film encourages all its viewers to do just as Walter did: to seize the day, go on an adventure, and never look back. This was not the first recreation of the original short story, and it's no coincidence that this is a story that has been retold so many times, because it offers a universal message of hope, and as Cheryll says, "courage, and going into the unknown".