"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" starts off well. The exposition of Walter's rather boring existence keeping track of the photos for Life magazine, tellingly entitled "negative assets," and the daring and imaginative reveries that he is prone to, are well presented and engaging. Suddenly Walter is swept up into a real life adventure and interesting, exciting things start to happen. Then the movie hits a wall and deflates. It manages to pick itself up somewhat, but there's so much scurrying around tying up loose ends that it really drags. The ending is fine and pretty much what you knew would happen all along, but the promise of the first third is unfulfilled.
The fault I think has more to do with the script than with Ben Stiller's direction. Stiller is fine in the title role, and I liked seeing Christine Wiig in a warm straight love interest part. The minor characters are a colorful lot, and often quite funny. Special effects and photography are outstanding, especially the far-flung location sequences.
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