Fantasy saved by understated humour and lovely vistas

THE Secret Life of Walter Mitty is escapist fare for anyone who's ever fantasised about a life of adventure and routinely performing feats of derring-do, like rushing into a burning building to save a baby or scooping up a damsel from in front of a runaway train. It's about bringing beautifully intense colour to a drab, grey-streaked world.

In short, it's for the desk-bound geeks and grinders among us whose idea of fun is to take a different route to the office each day.

Ben Stiller's big-budget update on James Thurber's classic 1939 short story inevitably includes heroic deeds and exotic locales - it's a holiday-period fable about a sad, lonely man who finally steps outside his comfort zone and, well, gets his just desserts.