The Secret of Life of Walter Mitty - Movie Review

Movie Review

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” 

 MPK Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Indonesia

By Yoga Lordason

             

                A movie depicting a deeply exciting exploration to unknown, often hazardous territories is perhaps one of particularly inciting factors that drags you to the theater, but what if the adventurous exploration that you expect to see is in some way combined with hilarious scenes to crack a laugh? That extraordinary movie should go to “the Secret of Life of Walter Mitty”, James Thurber’s based-on-story movie of Walter Mitty, a dedicative employee in the photography department at Life Magazine who successively falls into daydreams in which he pictures himself as a heroic man, jumping over a building to save a dog owned by Cheryl, his co-worker at the company with whom he feels in love. The movie represents Mitty’s fight with vigor to break his boundaries and go beyond his expectations to discover the worth of his life through the biggest challenges that he has never experienced.

            Walter Mitty, a highly dedicative employee, and his colleagues are on the verge of their careers at Life Magazine since internet use which enables online magazine to come into existence has increasingly decreased the public demands for paper-based magazine. Thus, lacking of demands for paper-based magazine appears to be inevitably pushing the company towards undesirable condition that forces it to close down and switch to an online version, which means that the staffs will lose their jobs. To leave a surviving impression upon the close-down, the company jumps to an endeavor to publish the last edition wrapped with the most awesome cover of all time. Unfortunately, the negative 25 that bears the photograph for the last cover is missing; thus, Mitty is in charge of locating the missing negative 25 by tracing a mysterious photographer, Sean O’Connell, through his whereabouts. Unless he discovers the negative 25, he is definitely at risk from being downsized as the company is forced to immensely eliminate the staff positions.

            Mitty thoroughly investigates the remaining pictures that Sean has taken in hope to locate where Sean is, and with the faint knowledge of connecting clues to suggest a position, Cheryl helps him decode the meaning of remaining pictures that soon reveal the most probable place where Sean may be located. After spending plenty of time on thoughtfulness, the obscure clues direct him to travel to Greenland where he finds out a heavy drinker man whose thumb’s picture is on one of Sean’s cryptic clues. With the aim to interpret more clues, he boards the man’s helicopter, heading further to a ship at the sea where he believes the ship crews may have seen Sean. The failure in dropping Mitty onto the ship makes him fall into the sea where he fights with great effort to release from shark attack that gives a more nerve-racking sense to his adventure. His journey ends up in Iceland where no man he meets speaks English well. As a result of miscommunication with the local people, Mitty goes on a hike towards a volcano which erupts shortly afterwards. As more clues clearly suggest where Sean is, Mitty is urged to go on another world-wide travel to Afghanistan, and in the end, to the peak of Himalaya where he eventually finds Sean. Surprisingly enough for him, Sean calmly declares that negative 25 which drags him to undergo such terrible adventure is nowhere but in his own wallet!

            The concept of unusual adventure in the movie is terrifically presented through the presence of Mitty in a series of event as the quest for the missing negative 25 proceeds. I like it that the story successfully casts a sense of very realistic human drama, conveying a real vigorous adventure through travels by plane, ship, bike, and even skateboard in different places with distinctive features that make the plot seem visually outstanding. Also, the presence of native people and the effects employed in every particular place strengthen the concept of adventure. Although Mitty’s daily-life triggers his fantasies that take place a bit too many times in the plot, the portrayal of his fantasies, such as jumping over the building to save a dog and fighting with the arrogant executive to seize the jelly-man doll give a sense of humor that make the movie more entertaining.

            The message of the movie is obviously seen through the discovery of Sean O’Connell and his declaration about the negative 25 which is nowhere but in Mitty’s own wallet. In this, with a series of event that takes place in the quest for the negative 25, the movie suggests that a person tends to push himself/herself away from what he/she is searching for, resulting in the presence of difficulty that requires a sacrifice and a determined attempt to conquer the situation. However, through the difficulty that one encounters, he/she will triumphantly find out his/her capacity as a man that may not have been known before encountering such events.

            I personally rank this movie as one of the best that I have watched, and you should make your way through the theater to prove how appealing it may be to you! The movie is appropriate for either teenagers or adults, yet it may not be appropriate for children, supposedly because the plot includes few adult things. In whatever way, though, I should say that this movie will best entertain those who attempt to push themselves further away from stuffed-up head circumstances by enjoying every second of incredibly adventurous plot! So, go and get the seat!