The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

I fell off the face of the digital plane when it came to this blog. My reason: I had no movies to inspire me to write about. There was a great blockbuster movie concerning a certain hot nordic alien god but I already wrote about that with my other blog since I felt it would receive more love.

Other that epic bucket of awesome, I was left with nothing. The movies this year was lackluster. On top of that, I had to suspend my netflix due to some extreme budgeting.

So I had nothing. This year has been a meh year for movies.

Until Christmas magic happened.

Every Christmas, my boyfriend and I will trek over to the Americana in Glendale to watch a movie. It's such a beautiful commercial space. There's a dancing fountain in the middle of it just like at the Grove.We were planning on watching "Frozen" but we each had some lukewarm feelings.This year we arrived a little due to some work issues so we were slightly dismayed. To our mutual delight, we found that we wanted to watch "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" but thought the other partner wasn't interested. Eh for communication.

Walter Mitty is a quiet man who day dreams of over the top, and wonderful scenarios. Lately he's been fantasizing about his office crush, Cheryl. Walter is a negative assests guy at Life magazine. I believe his job is to care and process for all the film negatives at Life magazine. On the midst of a company takeover, Walter finds that the most important negative for the final magazine has gone missing. Through a series of self revelations and circumstances, he goes off in search for the famous photographer of the negative.
;.l\I just found out that this movie is loosely based on a short story and there is already a 1947 movie with the same title. I am currently trying to see if I can get my hands on it so I can do some comparisons.

I was taken by surprise from the first scene. I just fell in love with the whole movie. It was so beautiful. funny, and just inspiring. I'm not talking about inspiring in a hippie or Hallmark card kind of way. This was inspiring in just taking that first leap.

My favorite scene of the whole movie, even more than the Stretch Armstrong doll skate boarding adventure, was the scene where Walter jumps into the helicopter. With imaginary Cheryl playing "Ground Control to Major Tom" on an acoustic guitar as he leaps and his elated expression yanked hard on my heart strings. The combination of sweet, hilarity, and breath taking scenario made this a great movie for me.

The marketing for this movie was crap. It makes it look like Walter Mitty is a lonely guy who imagines things. He's actually a very sociable person. He's just quiet and stagnant. Alot of people could probably relate to the stagnant part. I know I can.

There was a point a few years ago that I felt I was very stagnant. I barely made a ripple in financial security, my career was barely plodding, and I was single. I made one leap. I leapt into some great opportunities but also some great train wrecks. I still feel that I haven't accomplished much, almost as if I'm running against a clock somewhere. I also still keep focusing on the negative which is something I will have to stop doing at some part.

This is a great movie to watch no matter which section of life your in. You can watch it alone, with a loved one, friends, or family. Everyone should watch this movie. Ben Stiller did a great job starring and directing it.

I am really surprised I can say that since I always viewed Stiller as a goofy, awkward actor. Hell, even Kristin Wiig surprised. SNL actors. Wow.

With that, happy new years everyone! I hope next year will bring more great movies for me to share. I will end with this lovely quote from Neil Gaimen:

"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning,living,pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before and more importantly, you're doing Something. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or if it isn't perfect,whatever it is:art, or love, or work, or family or life. Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year, and forever."