The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. Submissions should be for the purpose of informing or initiating a discussion, not just to entertain readers. Read our extensive list of rules for more information on other types of posts like fan-art and self-promotion, or message the moderators if you have any questions.
It’s witty, fun, and embraces a delightful touch of the nonsensical. Watching Walter Mitty’s adventures unfold, you can’t help but get swept away by the charm and creativity that fill every scene.
It’s the kind of film that sparks a longing for the extraordinary in our own lives.
I’m curious, though—are there other movies out there that capture a similar spirit of whimsy and imaginative storytelling, or is ‘Walter Mitty’ really in a league of its own? (2013 version)
Maybe I’ve just been looking in the wrong places. What do you think? Are there other films you’d recommend that evoke the same feelings and themes as ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’?”
Edit: I think Eddie the Eagle and About Time are two others that seem to may have a similar charm.
Edit Edit: Thanks all for a wonderful discussion and perspective on your positive and negative experiences with this movie. I've since learned there was an earlier version and it was from a book and play as well as gotten a large amount of recommendation on other options of a similar type of movie. This is what makes Reddit great. Thanks again!
This also reminds me of Big Fish.
Big Fish is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Absolutely love Big Fish. One of my favorite movies.
"They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops. And that's true. What they don't tell you, is that once time starts again, it moves extra fast to catch up."
As someone who hasn't seen the movie, I still imagine Albert Finneys voice when I read it. If I watch this ima cry won't I
I have watched this movie well over a dozen times, and I still cry when I watch it
Odds are likely
Had that brushing-the-popcorn type moment. Having seen this movie, I identified it for what it was when it happened, and while it took a little time, I eventually married her.
I had this moment too. And I married the girl too. 14 years later we still call it our Big Fish popcorn moment.
The annoying thing is, that sort of thing happens whether or not the feeling is reciprocated. It's cute when the feeling is mutual, but once you reach your thirties as single, it starts happening all the fucking time and you have to start hiring a man to splash you with icewater to snap you out of imagining your life together with the person you just met.
"That's was my father's last joke, I guess. A man tells his stories so often, he becomes the stories. They live on after him. And that way, he becomes immortal."
This is my answer. Big Fish is one of my top five favorite films. Just excellent.
I also love Big Fish. It made me realise that I love stories ABOUT stories, and the power of storytelling.
The Fall. 3,000 Years of Longing. The Princess Bride. Forrest Gump. The Life of Pi. Stranger Than Fiction. Rashomon.
Grand Budapest Hotel for me!
The Odyssey!
I have so much love for that movie. Makes me think of my grandfather.
Big Fish and About Time are two movies scientifically crafted to absolutely fucking decimate the male façade of stoic father son relationships. Tell your dad you love them my dudes. If you don't wanna, then watch those movies and tell them anyway.
October Sky too
First movie that ever made me cry.
Completely agree about the similar vibe of About Time. I'd also add Stranger Than Fiction to that list. Just delightful.
Stranger Than Fiction is so good.
I brought you flours
I truly believe to elevate Stranger than Fiction should have letWill Ferrell's character die. Unfortunately, they didn't, it would have been existentially beautiful.
I couldn't disagree more.
Yes, there is a version of the basic premise where that would have worked (but would have to change a LOT about the author role throughout the whole story from introduction to end for that to be profound).
But as it is, it isn't just a happy end tagged on against the better premise. It is better in terms of what it means to be creative, particularly if you are trapped in your preconceptions of the story you are writing, while being unhappy.
I don't see how "her insisting on the end she had in mind" would have been a better story for her arc (and despite Harold being in the foreground, the story IS about HER)
Hard agree, the majority of the movie is Harold’s character arc, and her altering her writing form is the start of hers.
Brandon Sanderson talks about this at times - he’s an outline writer, and one of the big lessons he had to learn was how to allow his outline to be wrong and update/fix it to improve the story. I never even thought to relate that experience to Stranger than Fiction, but your analysis nailed it!
That movie should be required viewing for anyone getting an english lit degree. Hoffmans character kills it with the whole "well if you're living through a comedy you're going to get married in the end, and if it's a tragedy you're going to die."
Not to mention Hoffman’s stance that it was better to die as a character in a great work of fiction now, than live on in mundanity and die from something meaningless, like “choking on a breath mint”.
Chef also has a similar feel. It's movies where the charm is practically a character in itself.
Oh, good call. Great movie.
If we're going more grounded, I'd also add:
The Way Way Back
Begin Again
Gifted
And a personal love of mine that I know probably won't live up to everyone's standards: Instant Family.
Saw TWWB at a second run theater near my house on a whim and was NOT expecting to get gut-punched with flashbacks about family vacations where the family would go golfing or down to the beach and I was just left on my own and told to go make friends. Unfortunately there wasn’t a water park nearby.
The water park in the movie was the one near my house we’d go to as kids. So, this movie was close to home in more than one way.
All three of those movies are just so, so damn great.
Kings of summer?
The line “I brought you flours.” Is such a good encapsulation of my personality I’m kind of frightened it’s in a piece of media.
I will die on the hill that stranger than fiction is probably my favorite movie of all time.
Is anyone telling you that it isn't... your... favorites?
Multiple personalities depends on the time of day
"Little did he know that later that week he would find himself on that very same hill..."
I'm not a big Ferrell fan but his performance definitely works well in this movie.
I know this gets brought up every time Stranger Than Fiction is mentioned, but Ferrell in Everything Must Go is also quite a revelation. He’s really quite a charismatic actor when he’s playing it straight. And this, also, from someone that’s not a Ferrell fan.
You don't need to die on a hill for stating your personal preference.
I love cheeseburger is completely fine
You'd typically use that for cases where you're stating your personal opinion as universal truths.
Amber Heard was the best part of Aquaman that's a hill worth dying on for people of that flock
One of my all time favorite movie scenes is in this movie. When he's at the Papa John's and gets a call from Kristen Wiig's character. He talks about how he had a mowhawk when he was 17 that his dad had done for him.
Then his dad died.
It was a Tuesday.
By Thursday he had a haircut and a job.
Just breaks my heart every time.
It does tell a struggle that is real to many.
Oh huh, that went over my head. Just another reason why this movie will always stay with me.
Oh man… ugly tears every. single. time.
Fabulous Landscapes are what caught my Eye: Iceland, Himalayas etc. The leopard segment with Sean Penn was amazing. This was very very losely named/remake after the original with Danny Kaye, but not, which was great.
Both based on the original short story by New Yorker editor and author James Thurber.
Thurber is sadly forgotten. I fell into an Algonquin Round Table rabbit hole in my twenties, and read every book I could find about them. I have at least 100 books in my library from ART alumni or those within the orbit, and the writing is tremendous. Thurber is part of that millieu.
It's 30 is years later and I still occasionally find something from that loose group that I find absolutely fascinating.
Who also wrote My Life and Hard Times which is lovely and funny and made me laugh aloud.
Absolutely love the OG with Danny Kaye! Check out all his movies for great stuff - in particular The Court Jester and Hans Christian Anderson.
My favorite of his is Knock on Wood! Masterpieces.
We did a tour of Iceland and visited a lot of the sites where this was filmed. The bits in the Himalayas were also actually shot in Iceland.
I believe it was all filmed in Iceland.
Check out the show Patriot. Made by the same guy.
Just put it on my list -- thanks!
The Writer, Steven Conrad, also wrote the Amazon show Patriot, which is a portrait of hopelessness and the system failing you. The dude understands total despair and aloneness, and also what it means to abandon your fear and live life to the fullest. He’s a beautiful human writer.
Patriot is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
Just put it on my watch list -- TY
Yeah it's damn criminal how no one knows about this show.
Comment deleted by user
It felt like a proper ending to me. Whether it was intended to be or not.
I suggest this show to anybody who will hold still long enough to let me say ten words to them.
I can’t get my buddy, a professional piping engineer, to watch.
Right? It gets bloody discouraging after a while and I just stop telling certain friends and family members things like this.
But there's always hope with internet strangers!
Great show, a ton of unexpected huge laughs at often depraved things.
they do a podcast of the show now. https://open.spotify.com/show/50OgP610VCwCIen1eDkPwh
How did I not know this!? I'm a huge fan of both Walter Mitty and Patriot
Features one of the most understated and yet efficient "You suck" speeches to an antagonist, from Stiller to Adam Scott's corporate tool near the end.
"This thing that you do, Ted...where you come into a place and you push people out. You should know that those people worked really hard to build this magazine. They believed in the motto. And I get it. You got your marching orders...and you have to do what you have to do. But you don't have to be such a dick. Put that on a plaque and hang it at your next job."
I'm lovin it.
Ba da ba ba baaa!
It was weird seeing Adam Scott play such a jerk; I was so used to him as the lovable Benji Wyatt in parks and rec. But he nailed it.
Scott's equally adept at playing a nice guy everyman and a condescending jerk.
Bro, you need to see Step Brothers. Adam Scott is hysterically funny in it.
The way Adam Scott's characters treat's Walter, if I knew I was going to be redundant eventually, I have smacked that guys face
Because they took Ben Stiller, who most people love, and made his love interest Kristen Wiig. Then they decided to make the entire story about hope and adventure throughout various parts of the world.
Great movie I agree.
Fantastic soundtrack too
Yep, this movie helped me discover Jose Gonzalez!
I saw an an advanced screening and the version of Space Oddity that played as he runs for the helicopter was sung by Kristen Wiig the whole way through, instead of changing to David Bowie, which gave it a better feel than the theatrical version IMO.
If you ever need the confidence to try something new, I highly suggest listening to Step Out right when you’re on the brink of deciding whether to dive in or not.
And it’s gorgeous. Just a pleasure to look at.
Not only is he the lead actor but also the director and producer
Yeah, I was gonna say, "they" are also Ben Stiller
Said in another reply that I actively loathed Ben Stiller… until that movie.
The Big Year has a similar vibe to me. It did terribly at the box office but it’s just a whimsical story of Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Steve Martin doing some bird watching and learning about themselves along the way.
This is the one I was hoping to see in the comments. The Big Year and Walter Mitty give me the same feels. Love them both dearly. Also Dan in Real Life.
Dan in Real Life! Yes
Love this movie
Such a weird movie, but it's super memorable for some reason and I agree that it actually strings some of the same feelings.
It works up some feelings when Jack Black is showing his dad the camera reel of some birds and then comes across the American Golden Plover and tells him why it’s his favorite bird.
This bird travels thousands of miles in its lifetime. No passports, total freedom. This bird has seen some incredible things. That’s the bird that everybody underestimates.