movie review the secret life of walter mitty

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Let me be frank: to use the words of the august founder of this website, I hated, hated, hated this movie. 

From Ben Stiller’s pantomimes of romantic hesitation in its opening moments as Walter Mitty goes all J. Alfred Prufrock on eHarmony.com, to costar Adam Scott’s fussily styled fake beard, to the overall depiction of how a print magazine works/worked, to the consoling midtown-Manhattan romantic fade out, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” directed by Stiller from a script by Steve Conrad that is itself loosely adapted from James Thurber’s legendary short story (or, to be accurate, from the main conceit of Thurber’s story), grated on my nerves something fierce.

For all that, I’m giving the movie two stars, which, in star speak, translates to “fair.” I’m not doing this as a sop to anyone who might end up charmed by the sometimes winsome and always self-help-book-like particulars of Stiller’s romantic fable, which is can-do optimistic in rather stark contrast to Thurber’s highly pessimistic mini-parable. I’m doing this because I’m not entirely sure that my negative reaction isn’t a sort of personal carry-over from Stiller’s last directorial effort, the intermittently amusing but entirely smug and hateful “ Tropic Thunder .” From the opening credit sequence, featuring the tableau-like visuals that recall the work of Wes Anderson —for whom Stiller acted in the wonderful “ The Royal Tenenbaums “—my way of seeing the movie was circumscribed by the belief that what was being expressed/communicated was nothing much more than Stiller’s own privilege. In “Tropic Thunder,” that privilege was articulated via biting the Hollywood hand that fed him and telling the audience that it was getting what it deserved; here, the privilege manifests itself in Stiller’s ability to take a big film crew to Greenland, Iceland, and a relatively safe stand-in for Afghanistan to impart some vague, semi-earnest be-here-now bromides to the paying customers.

Stiller plays the title character, a daydreamer so focused that even as he learns that he’s likely to lose his job as a “negative assets handler” in the photo department of the real-life photo-driven  Life (which ceased publication as a separate magazine in 2000, and was re-created as a newspaper supplement), he can’t stop constructing fantasy scenarios involving the co-worker on whom he’s crushing. (She is played, with surprisingly noncommittal likeability for such an appealingly idiosyncratic performer, by Kristen Wiig .) 

These scenarios generally involve giving Mitty superpowers, and so the first half of the movie has a near-quorum of explosions and flying-human scenes. However. A missing negative from the magazine’s star globe-trotting photog ( Sean Penn ) sets Mitty on his own real-life globe-trotting adventure in search of the photog, who can tell him where the missing shot is. (You are likely to figure it out before Mitty does.) He hops on a helicopter flown by a drunken quasi-Nordic oaf, plummets into a stormy Arctic sea, skateboards to an Icelandic volcano, inadvertently tracks a snow leopard in South Asia, and more. Along the way he makes the Very Important Discovery that, while his fantasies might in some ways exercise his imagination, they are in a certain sense holding him back. In other words, don’t dream it, be it.

I liked the message better in “Rocky Horror” myself. While everything Stiller attempts here has a real professional polish, what “Mitty” lacks is any sense of what life might actually be like for the kind of “ordinary man” Mitty represents. Adam Scott’s dismissive, ignorant bean-counter, a company man who’s overseeing the shutdown of Life , comes off more like a nasty CAA agent than a publishing executive. And every now and then a Mitty fantasy will show its snide hand: there’s an entirely beside-any-point “Benjamin Button” parody here that wouldn’t pass muster as an MTV Movie Awards sketch. These sorts of incidental irritations, I began to notice, led me to some possible overpicking of nits, as in “I was in Iceland last winter, and everyone there speaks English almost perfectly, Stiller!”

So again, there’s a real question as to how reliable my assessment of “Mitty” as a weak-tea bunch of insincere pandering might be. On the other hand, your ability to swallow the movie’s nth fake epiphany scored to the nth contrived-crescendo concoction by Arcade Fire or some other camouflaged emoting pomp rock outfit might not necessarily make you a better person than I. It may mean you are a more patient one, however.

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Kathryn Hahn as
• Kathryn Hahn as Odessa Mitty
• Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty
• Kristen Wiig as Cheryl Melhoff
• Patton Oswalt as Todd
• Terence Bernie Hines as Gary
• Adam Scott as Ted Hendricks
• Ben Stiller
• James Thurber
• Steve Conrad

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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Review

Ground control to major tom ....

Ben Stiller directs and stars in the heartfelt, but superficial fantasy-dramedy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which wants to say big things about life but never fully delivers on all its promise.

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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Reviews

While not genial, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty recaptures the charm of hopeful stories by giving a comedy twist... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 11, 2023

I admire the film’s originality, and the thought-provoking twist ending, but daydream of a deeper director’s cut.

Full Review | Sep 23, 2022

Less about Walter Mitty’s secret life than his actual, perfectly romantic, impossibly realized adventures, the film loses itself in a fantasy world all its own and never fully embraces the everyday balance of reality and imagination.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 19, 2022

A frequently inspiring little film, one thrillingly devoid of any cynicism.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 17, 2021

It's Stiller's most subdued performance ever, and it looks good on him.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2021

The frequent fantasy is almost always indistinguishable from the reality - which makes the fantasy not inspiring enough and the reality far too unperceivable.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Dec 4, 2020

Stiller's performance is far more earnest than that which is found in Thurber's more satirical writing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 22, 2020

If you're a man who daydreams too much about exacting revenge for bullying, and wishing for a better life situation, have a gander at "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," and then go sign up for a Vision Quest, or a New Warrior Training Adventure.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 2, 2020

Stiller's remake succeeds in a wondrously entertaining and affecting way.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 18, 2019

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty fails because it is contrived, an inorganic exercise about what it means to get out of your comfort zone and go for broke. This is the childish fantasy of what that's supposed to look like.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 29, 2019

Stiller delivers an enjoyable take on the modern man's existential crisis, aided greatly by stunning cinematography.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 8, 2019

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty's most disappointing aspect is that Stiller has taken genuinely timeless themes and diluted them in a sea of schmaltz and sentimentality.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 7, 2019

It fails to understand that poignancy isn't something you set out to try and be, and that trying to just makes you look pretentious.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 1, 2018

The story is a combination of romance, action, mystery and comedy. It never misses a beat and skilfully delivers a feel good film that doesn't appear to blatantly manipulate audiences.

Full Review | Nov 1, 2018

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty ticks all the boxes for a sweet-natured family film and is spectacular on many levels.

Full Review | Aug 24, 2018

There are great moments throughout, but I couldn't help feeling this was largely a wild fantasy on the part of Stiller, who is not a talented straight actor, and who has effortfully stretched the original story beyond all recognition.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 22, 2018

Although Stiller has acted in far-out films like Zoolander before, this one gives viewers another side to this actor - one who can handle such ambitious films with ease.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 18, 2017

There's a nice, chill, un-cynical sweetness to Mitty, that, after a bunch of heavy prestige pics, was welcome.

Full Review | Oct 20, 2017

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty can sometimes feel like listening to a high-school slam poet read from his latest diary entry: it's all-too earnest and over-the-top heartfelt. You can't help but smile and look away.

Full Review | Aug 24, 2017

Along with turning in a nuanced performance, Stiller proves he has developed a keen ear and eye as a filmmaker.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 25, 2016

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He Can Balance a Checkbook, but Not His Imagination

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By A.O. Scott

• Dec. 24, 2013

As imagined by Ben Stiller, Walter Mitty is a man out of step with his time. An archetypal daydreamer introduced to the public by James Thurber as a henpecked suburban husband and later impersonated on screen by Danny Kaye as a misunderstood, starry-eyed sweetheart with a lovely singing voice, Walter has evolved into a modern office drone with an unusually active fantasy life. He is also, in some respects, the opposite of just about every other comic hero in American movies today, including many played by Mr. Stiller. And “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” directed by Mr. Stiller (who takes the title role), has a dreamy, melancholy tone quite different from what you might expect to find in a big-budget holiday comedy.

In a world dominated by overgrown boy-men with runaway ids, Walter suffers from a highly unusual affliction: an excess of maturity. The first thing we see him doing is balancing his checkbook with a ballpoint pen. Though we might be tempted, at first, to suppose that his highly developed sense of responsibility is the result of a compulsive personality, we soon learn that it arises from personal tragedy. As a teenager, Walter lost his father, and ever since then he has worked to support his mother (Shirley MacLaine) and sister (Kathryn Hahn) and to hold onto a sense of security in an uncertain universe. Workplace bullies might make fun of him, mocking his nerdy clothes and self-effacing manner, but from the start this Walter is, for the audience, a magnet for our sympathy. Not Thurber’s feckless Everyman or Kaye’s holy fool, but a sad, decent guy in need of protection and love.

Walter’s wild bouts of invention — he pictures himself leaping through the window of a burning building, tearing through the streets of Manhattan on a wild action-movie chase and doing other superhero-type stuff — represent some of the adventure he has sacrificed in a life of duty and drudgery. Employed in the photography department at Life magazine, he has a crush on a co-worker named Cheryl (Kristen Wiig, with her natural silliness in check and an adorable habit of crinkling up her nose) and a big problem with the new bosses, a squad of bearded, skinny-suited tech jerks led by Adam Scott.

A relic of the analog world, Walter is in danger of being downsized out of a job as the magazine prepares its final print edition. His desperate efforts to locate a missing negative — and a mysterious photographer played by Sean Penn — lead him on a caper much wilder than anything he had dreamed up. Following cryptic clues (which Cheryl helps him decode), he travels to Iceland, Afghanistan and other far-flung places, and the movie becomes a lavish, surreal travelogue, blending digital effects with stunning landscape montages.

It also, somewhat more riskily, tries to fold the kind of playful, wide-eyed high spirits familiar from the “Night at the Museum” movies into what is in effect a midlife melodrama. This is Walter Mitty by way of Marty , the soulful Bronx butcher played by Ernest Borgnine in the 1955 film that won the Oscar for best picture. Walter’s most notable trait is the one that everyone else undervalues or takes for granted: his goodness. Walter is a low-key suitor, and Cheryl is drawn to him for his thoughtfulness and quiet sense of humor rather than for the alpha-male derring-do he secretly possesses. In one funny, poignant scene, he executes a series of impressive skateboard moves — real, not imaginary — while her back is turned. But showing off like that would be out of character in any case.

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Ebiri on The Secret Life of Walter Mitty : A Predictable Dream World

Exquisitely produced, immaculately acted, and thoroughly uninvolving, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a perfect nothing of a movie. It takes James Thurber’s beloved short story about a man who spends all his time daydreaming of heroic feats in far-away places, and expands upon it in the most schematic, belabored way. This time out, Walter (Ben Stiller, who also directed) runs the photo archive at Life magazine. It’s a job most people would probably love to have, but in Stiller and screenwriter Scott Conrad’s vision, it’s the ideal purgatorial position for a submerged, extra-in-his-own-life type. In this iteration of the story, Walter is no longer a henpecked zhlub and more a lovestruck dreamer: He wants to go and speak to leggy, kindhearted fellow employee Cheryl (Kristen Wiig), but he can’t, much to the ridicule of the folks around him. Instead, he fantasizes about sweeping her off her feet as a lantern-jawed, Latin mountain climber who bursts through the walls of the office.

Meanwhile, the print magazine is going under, and a gaggle of evil corporate Internet douche bags are taking over, led by a menacingly bearded Adam Scott. (Insert funny dream sequence of Stiller and Scott having a superhero-level combat and chase through Manhattan.) While Walter’s New Beardo Overlords have no use for great photography, they do have a special cover shot planned for the final issue. They want a brilliant final image from their prized photographer, Sean O’Connell (Sean Penn), a scruffy daredevil who is off having the life Walter secretly wants. Unfortunately, the mysterious photo — which Sean has told Walter represents “the quintessence of Life ” (ha-ha, get it?) — is missing from his roll of negatives. And so, off Walter goes, on a real-life journey to track down the elusive, adventurous photographer and recover the image.

Up until this point, Stiller has created clear stylistic distinctions between Walter’s dream life and his real life — there’s no way not to, since the dreams are replete with expensive CGI and explosive, climactic face-offs. And when Walter finally goes off on his Excellent Adventure, Stiller shoots it as another one of his daydreams, accompanied by beautiful emo music and giant signs egging Walter on and everything happening swiftly, cleanly, as if by magic – like Wes Anderson directing a Nike commercial. And it’s a huge, almost catastrophic misstep. The adventure should resemble real life, not just another dream. Otherwise, there’s no sense of danger, and hence no reason to care. It’s such a simple, conceptual whiff — but it rots the entire movie from within. As Walter makes hairbreadth escapes from erupting volcanoes, falls into raging oceans filled with sharks, and runs into Afghan warlords, we feel alienated from the action, because it’s all been pitched at the level of unrealistic fantasy. The stakes haven’t been raised, so we never experience the thrill of the moment, a problem for a film that’s supposed to be all about living life to the fullest. The fake-o shark in Anchorman 2 is scarier.

On and on it goes, from set piece after set piece. All throughout, I kept thinking of Richard Attenborough’s signature line in Jurassic Park : “We’ve spared no expense.” Attenborough’s character had thought everything through – except the unpredictable. Stiller, for his part, seems to have banished the unpredictable entirely from his set. And so, he can’t keep his movie from being overtaken by the dinosaurs of tedium and … Anyway, I don’t exactly know where I’m going with this metaphor, but you get the idea.

Walter Mitty isn’t a terrible movie. It’s not even a bad one, really. It’s a pleasant enough diversion – Wiig is adorable, Scott is note-perfect, the music’s nice, it looks great, and you can marvel at the movie’s scope. Somebody clearly spent a lot of money on this thing, and it’s all up there on the screen. You want to applaud a comedy that dares to look good, that dares to have style and sweep instead of the point-and-shoot-and-improvise-and-stitch-it-together-in-post aesthetic of most comedies today. The movie is so eager to please, so desperate to be loved. But it forgets that in order to be loved, it needs to surprise us, to demonstrate some vulnerability, maybe even some imperfection. In short, it needs the one thing all the money in Hollywood can’t buy — a soul.

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• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Summary Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) lives life through his daydreams, but when his job along with that of his co-worker (Kristen Wiig) are threatened, Walter takes action in the real world embarking on a global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined.

Directed By : Ben Stiller

Written By : Steve Conrad, James Thurber

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

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Ben Stiller

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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: Review

Directed by: Ben Stiller Starring: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Kathryn Hahn, Sean Penn, Adam Scott, Shirley Maclaine

A day-dreamer escapes his anonymous life by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. When his job along with that of his co-worker are threatened, he takes action in the real world embarking on a global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined.

Walter ‘Daydream to the Extreme’ Mitty’s life is grey. He dresses in grey, his apartment is grey, his belongings are grey, his briefcase is silvery-grey, and his existence is grey. The only colourful aspect of his being and surroundings is his mind; his unusually over-active mind. I know as humans we are all guilty of daydreaming, sometimes about past situations we wished we handled with more style, future situations we hope to deal with in a fly way, and the things we fantasize about doing in reality, but feel more achievable and safer in our imagination. Well, Mitty takes these thoughts to the next level, like kung fu, superhero, Casanova, smooth-talker, explorer extraordinaire all rolled into one, level. I’m not going to lie; his head looks like a pretty fun place to be (for an outsider.)

Ben Stiller has directed a gem. I wasn’t expecting The Secret Life of Walter Mitty to be as entertaining and enjoyable as it was. It was a fantastic adventure smoothly dipping in and out of fantasy and reality – a gap at the start bigger than Madonna’s teeth, that shrunk as the film progressed, proving that the space between what we deem impossible and the possible isn’t that big when you put your mind to it. (Excuse the pun). The film was impressively shot, with an extremely precise and artistic approach – Stiller is definitely one to pay attention to detail! From his filming of breathtaking scenery in Greenland, Iceland, and the Himalayas to pretty epic action-fantastic daydreams, and sensitive and humorous relationships. Stiller ticked all the boxes with his diverse but concise skill. I’ll be shocked if Stiller’s awesome imaginary fight scene in the streets of New York with asshole MD of the company played by Adam Scott isn’t a contender for Best Fight at the MTV Movie Awards next year. It owns his 1999 win with Puffy The Dog!

It was great to see Stiller in a role where he didn’t play an uptight highly-strung control freak. He wasn’t flapping around and freaking out as we so often see him. He played Mitty in a controlled and endearing way, his gentle demeanor made the character instantly likeable and relatable. The cast in general gave great performances – a brilliant variety of characters that gelled so well; Adam Scott as the classic briefcase-wanker, (douche at work) man about town wannabe, Kathryn HAHAHahn as the airy fairy Jessie Spano look-a-like, Kristen Wiig as the warm, subtly-funny girl-next-door, and Sean Penn.

The soundtrack to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was carefully and beautifully crafted, each and every song has been perfectly picked to specific grand and over-whelming (in a good way) moments that evoked desire to travel, to explore, to stop thinking and start living…just like Mitty, as he starts to battle against the irony of such a lifeless soul who works for Life magazine.

Now I haven’t seen the 1947 film so I can’t compare, but I feel confident saying I strongly believe that Stiller’s version probably holds more zest, with colours and spectacular scenery bursting onto the screen, brilliant visual effects. A great touch to the film was Mitty’s relationship with Todd, the eHarmony customer services guy that essentially follows Mitty’s journey from thinking to doing. Todd calls him up now and again for a chat and to help him build up his dating profile, and keeps catching him on his extraordinary adventures. Each time he receives a call, Mitty has done something new and great with his life. The calls, in my opinion, are symbolic for how society today gives us so much choice, yet so little time – or so it seems, making it seemingly easier to live life through others instead of making things happen for yourself. For anyone who already gets the most out of life, those who want to get the most out of life but need a little nudge, and those who just dream about the possibilities, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a must see for all as an all-round inspiration and appreciation for life.

I Give The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 8 out of 10

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The secret life of walter mitty.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 26 Reviews
• Kids Say 71 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Inspiring seize-the-day tale with some peril and flirting.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty , starring and directed by Ben Stiller, may be based on James Thurber's short story, but it's very different from it and the original 1947 movie. It's a tween- and teen-friendly tale full of hope, with a can-do, go-big-or-go-home message…

Why Age 12+?

The film is set in the Time and Life Building in NYC, which are the headquarters

Some swearing, including "bull," "suck," "hell," &

Some drinking at a bar; one man is totally inebriated and pilots a helicopter.

A man jumps into a building, crashing through the window, and the entire structu

Some flirting and an unrequited crush is part of the story.

Any Positive Content?

You are your worst barrier. Get out of your own way.

Walter Mitty is tired of being too careful. So when an opportunity arises that a

Products & Purchases

The film is set in the Time and Life Building in NYC, which are the headquarters of Life Magazine, so there are plenty of mentions of the publication. Also: Dell, Papa John's, Sony, Cinnabon, Careerbuilder.com, Facebook, Instagram, Heinekin, Zero attache case. It's also practically an ad for e-Harmony, which is mentioned numerous times.

Some swearing, including "bull," "suck," "hell," "d--k" and "s--t."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

A man jumps into a building, crashing through the window, and the entire structure explodes soon after from a gas leak. A man threatens another at a bar, breaking a beer bottle and threatening his opponent with the shards. A man attacks a guy with a briefcase. A shark attacks a man, its jaws snapping.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

Walter Mitty is tired of being too careful. So when an opportunity arises that allows him to push past his limitations and help the magazine he has loved for so long, and possibly impress the woman he likes in the process, he finally goes for it.

Parents need to know that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty , starring and directed by Ben Stiller , may be based on James Thurber's short story, but it's very different from it and the original 1947 movie. It's a tween- and teen-friendly tale full of hope, with a can-do, go-big-or-go-home message that's backed by sensational special effects. Expect some swearing, including "hell" and "s--t," and some jarring scenes of conflict, though no graphic violence. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (26)
• Kids say (71)

Based on 26 parent reviews

Extraordinary Movie Secret life of walter mitty

Unique film may be too dull for younger children, what's the story.

Walter Mitty ( Ben Stiller ), is the negative asset manager at Life magazine, which means he handles the negatives that arrive from the publication's best shutterbugs and makes sure they're done justice when they're processed and printed. The biggest talent to endorse Walter's skills is Sean O'Connell ( Sean Penn ), a globe-trotting, adventure-seeking, and often unreachable photographer. But that's as close to adventure as Walter gets. He's a devoted son to a mother ( Shirley MacLaine ) who's keenly observant of his life; a good brother to his underemployed actress-sister, Odessa ( Kathryn Hahn ), and a sweet colleague to Cheryl, a woman he has a crush on ( Kristen Wiig ) but can't seem to approach. He's even friendly with the customer service rep ( Patton Oswalt ) at the dating site he just joined, but hasn't really taken advantage of. But Walter's carefully choreographed and simple life gets complicated quickly when Sean sends a negative to be published for Life 's final cover, and it goes missing. Walter will have to leave his nest to find Sean, or risk the wrath of Ted Hendricks ( Adam Scott ), who's managing the magazine's transition online and deciding who stays and who goes.

Is It Any Good?

See this film for the cinematography, which frames nearly every shot like a perfectly composed photograph of the likes you'd see in, say, Life magazine, where Walter works in the movie. The colors are saturated, the edges are crisp. And there's a monumentality to it all, which is perfect for a film examining the measure of a man, in this case the unassuming Mitty, who gave up on his global-scale dreams once his father died and he needed to help support his family.

Stiller and company do a fine job -- it's gratifying to see Sean Penn tweak his adventuresome, elusive image in the role of the adventuresome, elusive O'Connell -- and especially Oswalt, who takes what's essentially a voicing role and elevates it. But the script is too spare for a story that poses big questions. (The original short story by James Thurber was brief, too.) And nearly everyone in it, including the ostensibly larger-than-life O'Connell (whose idea of profundity appears to be not taking a photo if he wants to just be in the moment), lands squarely in the midrange, characterization-wise, leaving no one truly exceptional for Walter to aspire to. Walter Mitty is fun to watch, but it still plays it safe.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the messages in the movie. What makes Walter finally take action? Does the movie try to inspire you to do something ? What holds people back from pursuing their dreams?

Talk about the workplace needling that goes on at Walter's office once the downsizing is announced. Is this bullying? How does Walter handle it, and why does the bully get away with it for a while?

If you've read the short story, how does the movie compare? What are some of the challenges of turning a book or story into a movie?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 25, 2013
• On DVD or streaming : April 15, 2014
• Cast : Adam Scott , Ben Stiller , Kristen Wiig
• Director : Ben Stiller
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Adventures , Book Characters
• Run time : 114 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : some crude comments, language and action violence
• Last updated : May 29, 2024

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The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Review

26 Dec 2013

125 minutes

Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, The

Walter Mitty is a man, and that’s really about it. He is a person who doesn’t so much defy description as fail to invite it; someone who fades into the background even when he’s alone. He works in the picture department of Life magazine, a once mighty publication that is now closing due to changing markets and passionless moneymen who can’t think outside a spreadsheet. There he fiddles about with negatives and goes unnoticed, even by the one person he’d care to pay attention, newly single accounts worker Cheryl (Kristen Wiig). But all that is just the outside. Inside Walter is a world of adventure and amazement. In his daydreams he’s the hero who leaps into a burning building to rescue a helpless dog; the brave mountaineer who marches to claim the girl; a warrior who battles bad guys on skyscrapers. Though all anyone else sees is a fortysomething man, staring into nothing. This is the story of turning his inside out.

This version of Walter Mitty is, like the 1947 Danny Kaye film, an adaptation of James Thurber’s 1939 short story, in so far as any feature-length movie can be an adaptation of a story with fewer than 2,000 words. Both take the premise of a man who escapes his own drabness with flights of fancy, and the fact someone else had the original idea should steal no credit from screenwriter Steve Conrad, who has built a plot on a single brick from Thurber. Thurber’s version of Mitty, who has settled for moments of daydreaming in a mundane life, is just the first 20 minutes. The rest, in which Mitty decides daydreaming is not enough, is all invented, and very well.

Mitty is a huge step for Ben Stiller as director. Playing the title character he is quiet and touching, devoid of his signature fits of anger, but he’s always been a talented actor. Compared to the other men who were, at various times, in the waiting room to play the title character — Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Will Ferrell, Sacha Baron Cohen — Stiller is more naturally low-key, less of a show-off. It’s tough to imagine Baron Cohen or Myers doing the underplaying necessary for someone who’s the straight man in every encounter. Fine as he is in front of the camera, Stiller’s never been nearly this impressive behind it. His previous films, particularly the last three — The Cable Guy, Zoolander, Tropic Thunder — have a confident, if sometimes indulgent, comic structure and a large amount of cynicism. They would laugh at things — at the vacuous fashion industry or the self-important film industry — which is a fruitful position for comedy, because it risks very little, but here he’s sincere. Sincerity is difficult in modern cinema. If a single speck of falseness is evident then all deflates into schmaltz, and if you’re sincere without a hint of humour, everyone will go home bored and lectured. The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty is funny but not a comedy. Its laughs mostly come from the oddness of situations rather than jokes. Stiller clearly wants his audience to leave thinking and lifted, but not hectored. He’s striving for inspirational, and if you miss that by the smallest margin then you’re left looking hokey. You want to be a Jimmy Stewart movie, not a Robin Williams movie.

The reason it works is because Stiller keeps his eye on what Walter is after. The journey is huge but the goal is small; it won’t change the world, just his own. Walter’s path to a more interesting life begins when he sets himself a quest to track down a negative, sent to him by a reclusive photographer (Sean Penn, with a macho twinkle and magnificent hair) as “the quintessence of Life” and the perfect image for the magazine’s final cover. It’s lost before it even arrives. As the voyage grows, the play with fantasy changes. Early on, Walter’s daydreams will literally crash through into reality, such as in the beautiful moment when he, as a mountain climber, cracks through an office wall to romance Cheryl. But as the story develops and Walter begins an expedition to Greenland the fantasy becomes less heightened, until Walter’s own life becomes magic enough. The melding of imagined and real is done gently, without recourse to any ‘maybe it’s all in his head’ copping out. Stiller is, evidently, at heart just a big romantic.

There are times that he appears nervous about his ability to carry off a Big Film and he scuttles to comfortable ground, falling back on a cheap laugh. A Benjamin Button sequence could have come straight out of Tropic Thunder and its goofiness, while funny, sits clumsily. But Stiller has it. He’s up to the task. This is an intense workout for a director. There are action sequences (in the air, in the water and involving superpowers), there is romantic comedy, there is a touch of The Apartment-style corporate drama, there is a volcanic explosion and a bit with a shark. There’s a brilliant shot telling the history of a magazine with just a dash down a hall (it must be said that Stuart Dryburgh’s cinematography is wondrous throughout), and some ingenious use of text. It’s all very ‘look what I can do, Ma’, but comes off not as showing off so much as having fun playing. It would be no surprise if he now finds himself on the director shortlist for just about any big project looking for a steady hand.

Necessarily, though, it is not just a series of set-pieces; Stiller’s found a grasp on emotion he hasn’t shown before and a view on the world (a bit exasperated at the generation that photographs everything but looks at nothing). The most striking scene in the film is just two men, sitting on a ledge, watching the world and letting a moment disappear. The whimsy, gorgeous as it is, is all bonded together by the simplicity of a man who for all the wonders he sees, both inside and outside his own head, is just looking for a bit of reality that is his.

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Newcity Film

Reviews, profiles and news about movies in Chicago

Review: The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

by Ray Pride | December 23, 2013

• Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Ben Stiller has been talking up a film of James Thurber’s 1939 short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” for a very, very long time. And, $90 million later, here it is. The adaptation by Steve Conrad, which went through a claimed sixty drafts, is very much in the league of an earlier Conrad screenplay, “The Weather Man,” which took Chicago as a setting in a way that “Mitty” takes Manhattan and Iceland: Poignancy arises through small details not necessarily observed by an essentially passive milquetoast of a protagonist, but very much seen by the audience. Stiller’s Mitty is, well… a guy. (A guy who has some plot-convenient skateboard skills for a fifty-year-old office guy.) Playing a photo archivist, or, “negative asset manager,” for LIFE magazine, already defunct but about to go online-only in the world of the film, Mitty doodles and dawdles through the world, swept away by momentary bursts of special-effects fantasy while his life is changed by the presence of a cake made by his mother. (Mitty shares a ken for high-waisted trousers with Theodore Twombly, the protagonist of the futuristic “Her.”) Bright colors prevail: cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh (“The Piano,” “Lone Star”) seems to be auditioning to shoot the next generation of videos for songs by sigur rós. The brightest bits of comedy come from moments that burst from the same sensibility that many years ago crafted “The Ben Stiller Show,” including a weird parody of “Benjamin Button” and recurring physical jokes about Papa John’s pizza. The most jarring are the moments that seem like precise studies of the early, odder films of David Gordon Green. (“Mitty” shares a three-legged dog with Green’s “George Washington.”) The very pretty soundtrack tends to melancholy twee, and includes songs by José Gonzalez , Junip, Jack Johnson, Of Monsters and Men, Hall & Oates, the Human League and a Kristen Wiig-sung version of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” With the light, lyrical smiles of Wiig, the echt-James Nachtwey stylings of Sean Penn, Kathryn Hahn, Adam Scott, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as a drunk Icelander, Terence Bernie Hines, Adrian Martinez, Shirley MacLaine, Conan O’Brien, Andy Richter. 114m. (Ray Pride)

“The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty” opens Christmas Day. A six-minute-five-second trailer is below.

Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine .

Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram . More photography on Instagram .

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[ This is a re-post of my review from the 2013 New York Film Festival.  The Secret Life of Walter Mitty opens tomorrow. ]

The problem with platitudes is that they may profess a nice sentiment, but the statement tends to be an obvious one, and it will be a fleeting memory by the time you finish reading that t-shirt or bumper sticker. Platitudes can’t cut deeper and provide a thoughtful, lasting impression that would cause us to seriously take stock of our lives and values. Ben Stiller ’s two-hour platitude, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty , may seem like it’s championing bravery and adventure, but the presentation, while initially enjoyable, quickly becomes hollow, frivolous, and overbearing. It’s a movie where a man’s facial hair defines his character more than his actions.

Walter Mitty (Stiller) works as a photo manager for Life Magazine and spends a large portion of his time daydreaming about being confident and courageous. He also daydreams about his new co-worker Cheryl ( Kristen Wiig ), but can’t even work up the nerve to send her a “wink” on eHarmony. While working in the photo lab, Walter receives a roll from legendary photographer Sean O’Connell ( Sean Penn ) with photo #25 being singled out as “the quintessence of Life” (literally the magazine, but thematically it couldn't be more obvious). The smarmy exec ( Adam Scott ) in charge of shutting down the print edition of Life to move the publication to an online format wants the vaunted image for the cover of the final issue, but Walter can’t find the photo. Resolved to solve the mystery of the missing photo, Walter sets out on a real adventure to track down Sean and discover “the quintessence of Life”.

Stiller opens his movie with a nice mix of quiet and playful visuals, but this approach becomes tedious as the story wears on. It’s cute to see Walter agonize over trying to let Cheryl know he has a crush on her, and Stiller has some fun letting words dance across the background as Walter ambles through his humdrum life. The daydreams can also be enjoyable like when Walter has a big, street-shattering battle with the exec or saves Cheryl’s three-legged dog from a burning building. However, Stiller starts to push too hard when Walter starts daydreaming of a Curious Case of Benjamin Button parody, and it’s a scene that will get some laughs, but has nothing to do with the character or his relationships. At best, this daydream provides a clear delineation between the real world and Walter’s fantasies, but it also signals how little character development Walter needs since all of his other fantasies are about confidence and adventure.

Walter may be seeking the “quintessence of life”, but Walter Mitty is really the quintessence of Ben Stiller. With his latest directorial effort, Stiller has crafted an ode to his typecasting: the timid guy who becomes confident. It’s a character he’s played in There’s Something about Mary , Meet the Parents , Night at the Museum , The Heartbreak Kid , and too many more. I prefer Stiller when he’s doing ridiculous characters like Derek Zoolander and White Goodman, and the daydreams allow him to go in that direction like when he briefly plays a European mountaineer or the aforementioned Benjamin Button parody. The movie doesn’t necessarily need more of these goofy figures, but their presence shows that Stiller, even at his best, has become a painfully predictable actor.

In the case of Walter Mitty , Stiller is a timid guy who becomes confident through the power of travel. Except Walter’s travels still carry the air of fantasy. They’re lonely experiences marked by distracting quirks and minor interactions with others. Walter gets into extraordinary situations like fighting off a shark and skateboarding down a mountain, but apparently there’s no room for meaningful conversation with another human being. And even though Walter stops daydreaming, the plot can be so contrived and coincidental that it’s conceivable he’s still fantasizing. For example, Walter gets periodic phone calls from an overly helpful eHarmony customer service representative ( Patton Oswalt ) who wants to boost Walter’s online dating profile. These moments would be a far better fit for a daydream, but they’re shoehorned in to remind us that Walter is (arguably) living his life to the fullest. It’s not enough for the audience to be amazed at how Walter fought off a shark; we have to hear the customer service rep’s giddy reaction to Walter’s nonchalant recounting of fighting off the shark.

The movie never ceases to remind us that Walter is finally making his dreams a reality, but the reminders are presented in the broadest manner possible. I love it when movies are earnest and life-affirming, but Walter Mitty has all the honesty of a commercial. Advertisements don’t need to speak in detail. They speak in assertive, vapid statements. At one point, Stiller’s direction is so overbearing with these kinds of schmaltzy pronouncements that the movie basically becomes a mini-commercial for Air Greenland. The good people at Air Greenland could literally cut out the entire sequence, put it on TV, and it would work. But as part of a larger movie, it only highlights the shallowness of Walter’s journey.

The movie can’t seem to stop trumpeting its own profundity despite surrounding Walter with characters that are only slightly shallower than he is. Cheryl is nothing more than a trophy albeit a charming one thanks to the endearing Wiig; Sean is just some guru figure/MacGuffin; and I can’t recall the exec’s name, but I remember him for his evil beard rather than anything resembling an authentic personality. It’s odd for Walter to feel the need to jump into daydreams when he has such a cartoony foe waiting for him in real life. The exec could easily be Scott’s character “Derek” from Step Brothers , but now with a beard that looks like it was glued on. The Derek character can work in a comedy like Step Brothers , but it can’t in a movie where we’re supposed to be inspired by the protagonist’s personal growth.

Personal growth in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is measured not in relationships or serious hardships, but in facial hair. When we see Walter’s beard, we know he hasn’t had time to shave because he’s been too busy traveling. It’s a superficial marker of achievements that are devoid of an emotional reward. Being spontaneous and traveling are fine things to do, but Stiller has turned them into a brochure rather than a fulfilling story. Like most travel brochures, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is filled with pretty pictures and a motivation tone, but it lacks the depth and thoughtfulness to depict what truly makes us better people.

• Kristen Wiig

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Before stepping into the dazzling fantasy world director-star Ben Stiller conjures up in his film adaptation of James Thurber’s classic 1939 short story, know this. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is eons away from the raucous farce of Stiller’s last directing effort, 2008’s Tropic Thunder . Stiller goes gentle into the good daydreams of Walter, a photo editor at Life magazine who finds it easier to imagine himself into the adventure photos on his desk than actually living them. Then he gets his big chance. Heading to Greenland to track down star photographer Sean O’Connell (a standout Sean Penn), Walter gets to climb mountains, splash with sharks and skateboard into a spewing volcano. Co-worker and dreamgirl Cheryl (a lovely, low-key Kristen Wiig) eggs him on. But Walter is in crisis. Digital has made him a dinosaur at work. And reality has far outstripped his make-believe. In his uniquely funny and unexpectedly tender movie, Stiller takes us on a personal journey of lingering resonance.

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Den of Geek

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Review

Ben Stilller's newest effort is beautifully wrought and surprisingly sly, but proves more aloof than its title character.

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2.5 out of 5

David Crow | @DCrowsNest

David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…

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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

• When both he and a colleague are about to lose their job, Walter takes action by embarking on an adventure more extraordinary than anything he ever imagined.
• The manager of the negative-assets sector of Life magazine, Walter Mitty, has been working for 16 years for the magazine and has a tedious life, not going anywhere but to and from work. He is an escapist, daydreaming into a fantasy world many times a day. Walter has a crush on recently-hired Cheryl Melhoff but he is too shy to invite her out and he is trying to contact her via online dating. The magazine is preparing to release its last printed edition and the loathsome manager of transition Ted Hendricks is preparing an inevitable downsizing over the next few days. Walter has been the liaison between the magazine and the mysterious independent photographer Sean O'Connell, who has sent to him a package of negatives and a wallet as a gift for his work. Sean also suggests to the senior management the use of negative 25 for the cover of the last edition. However, Walter cannot find the missing negative. Walter has no means to contact Sean and finds a clue that he might be in Greenland. He decides to travel to Greenland to track Sean down in the beginning of an unbelievable adventure. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• In this comedic adaptation of James Thurber's short story, Ben Stiller stars as Walter, a milquetoast negative-asset manager for a magazine-publishing firm. Walter is constitutionally incapable of standing up for himself, so he retreats into his fantasy world, where he is heroic, poised, self-assured, and the master of his fate.
• All good things must come to an end, and, sadly--as the popular American magazine, Life, ceases publication to focus exclusively on the online market--suddenly, quiet daydreamer and the organisation's negative-asset manager, Walter Mitty, faces unemployment. To make matters worse, for the final print issue's cover image, the famed globe-trotting photographer, Sean O'Connell, entrusts Mitty with the epitome of his life's work captured in a single frame that is, however, nowhere to be found. As a result, the mousy and utterly unadventurous Walter must step out of his comfort zone to venture into the unknown at the edge of the world, trying to save what's left of his reputation; nevertheless, is he prepared to live up to the company's inspiring motto? Above all, life is a gift. What was captured inside Sean's quintessential but missing photograph? — Nick Riganas
• Unhappy with the dull, lonely direction his life has taken, socially-awkward Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) has a chance to change that when he's tasked with finding a missing photo that could save his company from being downsized. In a wild and unexpected turn of events, Walter's adventure takes him to all corners of the world as he attempts to track down the mysterious, elusive photographer who took the photo. — geometrydashbroham
• Walter Mitty is a negative assets manager at 'Life' magazine who daydreams of adventures to get away out of the tedium of his boring job. Mitty also has a crush on a co-worker named Cheryl, but never has the nerve to tell her his feelings towards her. Mitty works with photojournalist Sean O'Connell, whose images are highly regarded. O'Connell has sent Mitty his latest negatives and a wallet as a gift in appreciation of Mitty's work. O'Connell believes negative #25 captures the "quintessence" of Life and that it should be used for the cover of the magazine's final print issue as it converts to online status. The negative is missing, however, and Walter is forced to stall for time with corporate transition manager Ted Hendricks, who is handling the downsizing. While viewing the other negatives outside Life's offices, Cheryl approaches Mitty and suggests that he think of the negatives as clues to Sean's location. They look at three of them, including one of a person's thumb with a unique ring on it, and another of a curved piece of wood. A third picture of a boat leads Mitty to determine that O'Connell is in Greenland. Mitty promptly flies there to find him. After arriving in the Greenland capital city of Nuuk, Mitty meets with a local bartender who explains that O'Connell left on a ship. To find him, Mitty would need to go on the postal helicopter that delivers mail to the various towns and outposts along the coast, and the pilot is drunk. Mitty recognizes the pilot's thumb with the unique ring and realizes he is on the right track. He at first declines to fly with the intoxicated pilot, but imagines Cheryl singing "Space Oddity", gains a new confidence and boards the helicopter. Nearing the ship, Mitty learns the helicopter cannot land upon it. Misunderstanding the pilot, instead of jumping into a dinghy boat nearing to catch him, Mitty aims for the main vessel and misses and falls in the ocean. He splashes down into ice-cold, shark-infested waters, losing a box of ship-to-shore radio components before being brought aboard. Mitty learns that O'Connell departed the ship earlier. The crew offers him some clementine cake O'Connell left behind; Mitty discovers O'Connell's destinations in the wrapping paper. The itinerary directs Mitty to Iceland, where O'Connell is photographing the volcano Eyjafjallajökull, and he arrives at the local village of Skógar near the volcano using a longboard, and notices O'Connell on the plane flying near the volcano. An eruption forces Mitty to flee, and as there is nothing left for him to do, he obeys a text message recalling him to New York. For failing to recover the negative, his first failure in a long career with the magazine, Mitty is fired by Hendricks. He learns that Cheryl, who was let go earlier, seems to have reconciled with her estranged husband. Mitty returns home discouraged and visits his mother, throwing away the wallet he received from O'Connell. To his surprise, Mitty recognizes the curve of the piano in his mother's house while looking at the last photograph. When asked, Mitty's mom mentions having met O'Connell. She had told Mitty before but he was daydreaming and failed to hear her. Mitty discovers O'Connell is in the Himalayas, and finds him photographing a rare snow leopard. When asked about the negative, O'Connell explains that the message on the gift wrapping to "look inside" was literal; the negative was in the wallet. Unfortunately, Mitty had interpreted this message as a direction to look inside the tissue paper in the box containing the wallet, and it could also be interpreted as referring to the inscription stamped into the leather inside the wallet. When pressed to reveal the image on the negative, O'Connell dismisses the question and joins in a high-altitude football game with some locals. Mitty flies to Los Angeles but is detained by airport security during a misunderstanding (mainly stemming from his having traveled through Yemen to Afghanistan). Mitty calls the only person he knows in Los Angeles: Todd Maher, a representative at eHarmony who has kept in contact during Mitty's adventures. While helping his mother sell her piano, Mitty recounts his story but mentions he does not have the wallet anymore. His mother says she always keeps his knickknacks and gives him the wallet that she retrieved from the trash. Finding inside the wallet a small manila envelope the size of a single-frame 35mm negative, an emboldened Mitty delivers it to Life magazine, tells management that it was the photograph O'Connell wanted for the final issue, and berates Hendricks for disrespecting the staff that made the magazine so honored before walking away from the office, humiliating him in front of his recently hired staff. Mitty reunites with Cheryl, emboldens himself enough to tell her outright that he has been thinking about and inspired by her, and learns that Cheryl's ex-husband was only at her house to repair the refrigerator. Mitty tells Cheryl of his adventures and admits that he still does not know what negative #25 shows. Mitty and Cheryl see the final issue of Life at a newsstand, with its cover dedicated to the staff. It is accompanied by the photograph from negative #25, showing Mitty sitting outside of the Life building, examining a contact sheet. Mitty and Cheryl continue their walk down the street holding hands.

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10 Acting Couples Who Love Working Together

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Ben Stiller has been a major blockbuster star since the 1990s, and he has the impressive net worth to go along with a prolific and successful career. The son of Jerry Stiller of Seinfeld and The King of Queens fame and Anne Meara, an Emmy-nominated comedian and actress, Ben Stiller was likely always going to end up being a comedic actor. What wasn't so assured was just how successful he would end up being. After some strong early roles, Ben Stiller became one of the funniest comic actors working, getting his first major comic part in Heavyweights .

Then came Happy Gilmore , There's Something About Mary , Zoolander , Meet the Parents , and much, much more. He has not only focused on the comedy side, putting in impressive performances in dramatic films like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty , The Royal Tenenbaums , and The Meyerowitz Stories . His Hollywood family doesn't end with his parents either. Stiller married actress Christine Taylor in 2000. The pair briefly separated in 2017 but reconciled after living together during the COVID-19 pandemic .

Ben Stiller's Net Worth

Stiller is worth $200 million.

According to CelebrityNetWorth , Ben Stiller has a net worth of $200 million . This staggering net worth comes from a long career of starring, directing, and producing some of the biggest blockbuster hits in recent decades. All totaled, his films have made over $6 billion at the box office. In 1998, Stiller earned $3 million for his performance in There's Something About Mary . Three years later, he earned $2.5 million for Zoolander , a movie he also directed. It can be assumed that Stiller earned similar if not higher rates for subsequent performances.

Ben Stiller's Age & Height

Stiller is a sagittarius.

Ben Stiller is 5' 7" according to IMDb , but 5' 6" according to CelebHeights , so 5' 6 1/2" is a good estimate. He was born on November 30, 1965, making him 58 in the fall of 2024. That date also makes him a Sagittarius in the zodiac. Sagittariuses are fire signs fueled by wanderlust, often going on thrill-seeking expeditions, chasing after intellectual and spiritual adventures (via Allure ).

From Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson to John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, these acting couples love working together on various TV and film projects.

It follows then that one of Stiller's more personal films is The Secret Life of Walter Mitty , a movie that could be defined by those Sagittarius qualities. Sagittariuses are also known to be incredible storytellers, entertainers, and creatives, which Stiller has proven he is every bit of.

Ben Stiller Is A Huge Star Trek Fan

Stiller loves the classic science fiction series.

Ben Stiller has never been shy about being a huge Trekkie, often slipping in little nods to the science fiction franchise in his films. He appeared as himself on the television special Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond to talk about his fondness for the show, and he performed at the roast of William Shatner.

Even his production company, Red Hour Productions, is a nod to a time of day referenced in the Star Trek episode "The Return of the Archons" from the original series.

Stiller once told guests at the Academy Awards that he had replicas of Spock's ears, signed by Leonard Nimoy, then presented the award for Best Makeup to Star Trek (via Oscars ). Even his production company, Red Hour Productions, is a nod to a time of day referenced in the Star Trek episode "The Return of the Archons" from the original series. Perhaps Ben Stiller will one day work on a Star Trek production. He could probably finance it himself with such a large net worth.

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Released in 2001, Zoolander is an American comedy starring Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander, a world-renowned fashion model that is nearing the end of his career. But as he is stepping out of the spotlight, Derek is brainwashed into killing the Prime Minister of Malaysia. The film spawned a sequel, Zoolander 2, which was released in 2016.