An inspirational reminder to treat life with great intention

Ben Stiller delivers an inspirational remake of the 1947 original that reminds us to stop imagining life and choose to live it instead.

He challenges us to be an active participant in our destiny by introducing us to Walter Mitty - a boring man trapped by his own thoughts.

Like many of us, Walter had exciting plans when he was young, but gave them up for a safer, simpler life in the face of hard circumstances. After his dad died, Walter worked at Papa Johns to provide for the family instead of traveling the world. He landed a job at LIFE magazine, dutifully serving as legendary photographer Sean O'Connell's photo archivist for 16 years.

When Walter loses Sean's photo for the last cover image of LIFE's paper magazine, he embarks on a quest to find it - and himself - in the process.

Stiller does a good job reminding us how stale life can be when we allow safe, predictable circumstances to forge our destiny. The LIFE office and employees are pictured as a lifeless, cold environment painted appropriately with corporate tropes like suits, massive buildings, and layoffs.

All of Walter's daydreams are incredibly colorful, full of surprise and intrigue in full contrast to the office setting. His visions occur frequently in the early parts of his journey to demonstrate how unfulfilled his life is.

And Stiller doesn't hold back in reminding us either.

For the first 30 minutes of the film we're suffocated in the many shortcomings of Walter's life - from his dating profile to the empty travel journals his mom kept from his youth. And that's on top of Walter's aggressive daydreams.

I can't state how warm and exciting Walter's transformation was to witness, but the film's editing made the timeline feel disorienting.

Walter has two weeks to find the missing photo, but manages to fly across the world and back twice, including a hike up an Afghanistan mountain.

...and he's back in time with the photo two days before the deadline.

It's not unbelievable, but the editing of the montages other events made it feel like more than two weeks had passed since the photo went missing.

Walter Mitty is a great character. Stiller makes it easy to empathize with his situation but to also cheer for him to pursue his dreams. He does this through Kristen Wiig's character, who serves as Mitty's wake up call to stop watching his life and start writing it.

Wiig does a great job in the role. I couldn't stop thinking of Cheryl as the type of girl that helps a boy grow up.

Cheryl knows exactly what she wants.

In her dating profile she says she's looking for a man who is adventurous, brave, and creative (or just employed) - nodding to the reality that life is a balance of responsibility and adventure.

When they realize Sean might be in Greenland, Walter wants to let that be an excuse to give up.

Cheryl simplifies it: "go to Greenland."

Just like that. Like it's a just a matter of deciding. Almost like she gave Walter permission to think bigger than the corporate walls of loyalty he's served since his father died.

Her words lit a fire in Walter's spirit he hadn't seen in years.

As we age, it's easy to get stuck in a rut of thought. To surrender to the temptation that life has already decided what we'll get to be and do, and any attempts to be different will be punished by judgement and resistance.

But these are artifacts of our own mind, thrown up to protect us from risk.

Ironically, Walter's idea of safety - working at the company instead of chasing his dreams - was shattering in real time around him. The paper's end meant mass layoffs of hundreds of employees.

The illusion of corporate safety, vanquished by outside forces.

Nothing is guaranteed except one thing: nobody will chase your dreams if you don't.

It's natural to let circumstances define our path, but it's still possible to just decide to do something different.

You don't need permission from the world to pursue your dreams. If we learned anything from Walter's life, it's that suspended dreams transform into regret and anxiety.

Cheryl revealed that we have more agency over our life than our minds allow.

As Walter took hold of his destiny, the daydreams subsided to create space for life.

At the climax of the film, Sean asks Walter at the summit of the mountain what he was doing. Walter answers that he was just looking for Sean.

He wasn't on a journey to discover himself, but he allowed a strong purpose to lead him into the unknown where he faced the fear of uncertainty to pursue an adventure he was called toward.

Stiller reminds us to take hold of our life as an active participant through the charming, relatable life of Walter Mitty.