The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
The idea of a “secret life” might sound duplicitous, but Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) isn’t hiding anything. He simply has an overactive imagination and “zones out,” living out imaginary scenarios in his mind. Each day he comes into work and does the same old mundane thing, but fantasizes about doing something a little more noteworthy or mentionable before life ends. For Walter, that means more than you might realize; he works for LIFE magazine, which is being shut down. LIFE, as he knows it, is ending.
The idea of a “secret life” might sound duplicitous, but Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) isn’t hiding anything. He simply has an overactive imagination and “zones out,” living out imaginary scenarios in his mind. Each day he comes into work and does the same old mundane thing, but fantasizes about doing something a little more noteworthy or mentionable before life ends. For Walter, that means more than you might realize; he works for LIFE magazine, which is being shut down. LIFE, as he knows it, is ending.
Walter manages photo negatives. His job is so unglamorous he can’t even make it sound interesting on an online dating profile. His daydreams of a more exciting life are interrupted when the negative meant for the magazine’s final cover image goes missing. Encouraged by Cheryl (Kristen Wiig), the coworker he can’t quite work up the nerve to ask out, he embarks on a quest to track down the elusive globetrotting photographer Sean (Sean Penn), who captures the iconic images and leads a life of adventure and intrigue. What Walter doesn’t realize is that he is actually chasing proof that his life has amounted to something.
This isn’t merely a visually appealing travelogue with quaint messages about “living life in the moment.” There is more here. When Walter finally catches up with Sean — literally, a wise man on a mountain — he learns that some of the greatest people on Earth are not those who ride atop biplanes flying toward erupting volcanoes, but those who are stalwart bastions of honesty and duty. Much like a snow leopard, an elusive but beautiful creature that doesn’t want to be seen, so it goes with true greatness.
Walter does end up doing some genuinely incredible things, but when he lists them on his resumé, they read like the banal factoids you might find about a saint in Butler’s Lives. Cool, but dry. And That’s the point. Cheryl might not have noticed his impressive skateboard moves, but she does notice that he shows up every day and does the right thing.
It’s easy to miss the Catholicity here. Rather than merely giving Walter a beautiful life, the story draws us toward a higher purpose: seeing the world as a gift. The film’s vocabulary stops at “finding each other,” and never quite looks upward. But Catholics can finish the sentence. The secret life, it turns out, is a saintly life. St. Joseph was not a miracle worker or martyr, and he doesn’t even speak in Scripture. And yet he’s the patron of a happy death. Greatness often just looks like faithfulness.
Walter’s secret life, it turns out, isn’t being an imaginary astronaut on a magazine cover. It’s the life unseen: the humble, ordinary life that goes unnoticed. In the end, to truly “see the world” means seeing the people who make life what it is.
This is the second film of the same name. The 1947 musical starring Danny Kaye is also worth a watch, but I find this 2013 remake to have more emotional depth. It’s amusing, lighthearted, and refreshing.
114 min
2013
Adventure/Comedy-drama
PG for language and innuendo. Suggested for ages 12+
