Of course he NEVER actually travelled to Greenland, Iceland, etc.
Warning; this post obviously contains spoilers!
Well, I never intended to create this topic in the first place because I thought my observations were obvious. I guess not. I was surprised reading so many posts here on imdb (and of some critics) of people who really think he went to Greenland, Iceland and Afghanistan and he really made it to the cover of the magazine.
As the movie shows in the beginning, most of his life (in particular the adventures) are daydreams. Do people really think the travelled to Greenland? Battled sharks? Stars at skateboarding? Escaped a volcanic eruption? Climbed mountains? Made it to the cover of LIFE? And, perhaps, got the girl?
Is this a feelgood movie? Why? He got fired for losing a negative (creating his own imaginary adventure based on photos to retrieve it from his wallet), never leaves New York, only has a helpdesk guy to talk to on the phone, and hopelessly tries to approach a female colleague who already started dating a guy (her outdated profile is broken which explains why he cant sent a wink). It made me feel pretty sad at the ending. On the other hand, this "secret life" of his brings him to mountains in Afghanistan while actually being in a city park next to kids playing soccer. This makes his life richer than any of us can imagine, so ok, for that reason, it can be considered a feel good movie..............
The hints that most stuff is not real are countless:
1. The sequences at the beginning of the movie of him being a hero heavily warning the viewer. 2. his cell phone reception talking with the dating-site helpdesk in the middle of nowhere. The calls are real, but the location and the conversation itself arent. 3. A NY pizza place in Iceland when he steps out of a car. 4. unrealistic action (eruption, sharks, high-altitude mountain climbing). 5. kids playing soccer on high mountains like its a park. 6. After his final hero talk with the bearded bad-guy, he suddenly is in the elevator with a colleague, showing it was again just a day dream. 7. the cellphone text message of his colleague on the mountain which only half-succeeds to bring him back to reality.
Any moment that is normal is real, any moment where he is a hero is obviously not. The only doubt is created in the final scene with the girl, I really hope for him that was real!!......
Many people might find this post obvious, so my sincere apologies to them. Its just surprising that a movie like "Life of Pi" (similar to this one since what you see isn't "real") needs to put in a final scene to explain stuff, which was not necessary of course. As soon as it is not explained (as in this movie), its shocking to see how many people take what they see literal....... How many hints do you need? Does it really need to be spelled out for you all time? I also thought about the excellent horror movie "Drag me to hell" which shows the mental state of a woman with an eating-disorder, but never spells this out to the viewer, resulting in >90% of the viewers misinterpreting the entire movie.
In hindsight, I have to agree with the critics that this movie is not as good as it could have been. Its a commercial-like "feel good" movie that is misinterpreted by many people. Deep issues remain unfortunately unaddressed, making the movie shallow (nonetheless amusable!). Truly good scenes are absent. Its just nothing compared to something like Forest Gump.