Parents' Guide to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

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.