The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (2013)

A mild mannered employee of Life magazine (Ben Stiller, who also directed) leads a rather lackluster life but has daydreams of leading an adventurous existence. His timidity prevents him from letting a fellow employee (Kristen Wiig) know that he's interested in her. But soon, he will begin a real adventure that will change his life forever. A remake of a 1947 Danny Kaye film based on a James Thurber short story doesn't exactly get your hopes up. So what a pleasant surprise this turned out to be. As the film began, it was like unwrapping a rather plain package and finding something wonderful inside. It has very little to do with the actual Thurber tale but the 1947 film didn't either. This is a more ambitious (and need I say better?) film but with a generous amount of laughs. Steve Conrad's screenplay touches the dreamer in all of us but still has enough wit to poke fun at the popular superhero Marvel movies that clean up at the box office. Stuart Dryburgh's (THE PIANO) lensing of the Iceland locations are breathtaking and it's nice to see Wiig in a traditional romantic lead, letting us see that she can do more than play the wacky funny ladies. And if anyone needed reminding what a great song David Bowie's Space Oddity is, this is the film to do it. With Sean Penn, Shirley MacLaine, Conan O'Brien, Kathryn Hahn, Patton Oswalt and Adam Scott, suitably slimey (but isn't he always?) as the new transition manager.