Human disconnect, social isolation and the transition to an increasingly digital era come crashing together in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, actor-director Ben Stiller’s personal take on a classic story.
Walter Mitty, out in US theatres on Christmas Day, finds Stiller not just reimagining the character made famous from author James Thurber’s 1939 short story of the same name in The New Yorker magazine, but redefining what Walter Mitty has come to represent in popular culture.
Walter Mitty is described by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a commonplace unadventurous person who seeks escape from reality through daydreaming”, and is often used to describe people who imagine themselves greater than they are in reality.
Stiller’s Walter Mitty is different. A middle-aged man trapped by financial responsibility, Walter is a photo archivist at the dwindling Life magazine, a job that is being replaced by machines. Shy, sheltered and reserved, he is isolated from the environment around him.
“(He’s not) some kind of an oddball or loner or nerd, but just a regular guy who has a lot of potential and hadn’t figured out a way to unlock it,” Stiller said.
The movie blurs in and out of Walter’s imagination as his daydreams take him into new worlds and personas, be it the rugged explorer seducing his crush Cheryl, played by Kristen Wiig, or jumping into a fiery apartment to save trapped residents. But as he breaks out of social isolation and makes real human connections, Walter finds himself living a real life far greater than his imagination could conjure up.
Caught up in a society shifting from the analogue to the digital age, Walter is tasked with recovering the photograph that will appear on the cover of the final Life magazine as the publication is downsized.
His journey to track down the photo, shot on film by maverick photographer Sean O’Connell, played by Sean Penn, sees Walter finally letting go of Life magazine and embracing life, a motto echoed by the publication renowned for capturing iconic and arresting photographs, which folded in 2007.
Stiller faced new challenges as a director to capture real scenes rather than using special effects
Made for a budget of $90 million and shot in New York City and against visually captivating natural landscapes in Iceland, Stiller said he faced new challenges as a director to capture real scenes rather than using special effects.
Setting The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in a contemporary world helped Stiller wrap cultural touchstones such as eHarmony online dating or Instagram into the comedy, which the director hoped will make the story more real for audiences.
“What I would hope for is that it’s more than just a diversion, that it somehow connects to something emotionally with people on some level,” the director said.