The film is based on the real story of Philippe Petit's walk on high wire between World Trade Centre towers in 1974.
The Walk
Dir: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, Ben Kingsley, Clément Sibony, César Domboy, James Badge Dale
Rating: ***1/2
What's it about:
In one line? Philippe Petit's legendary (and illegal) walk on a high wire between the World Trade Centre towers in New York in 1974. The film takes you through Petit's early days learning the art and how he prepared for the high-wire act that would define his life and career.
When we first meet Petit , he's a small boy who sneaks into a circus to to see a high-wire act and eventually teaches himself how to do the same. He soon graduates from parks to open spaces - anywhere he can hang his rope and perform tricks, really -- and eventually 'hires' a mentor Papa Rudy to train him and teach him the tricks of the trade.
A visit to the dentist gets him acquainted with the twin towers and it becomes his burning ambition to walk between the two roofs. How he gets there without getting caught and carries out his daredevil act is what this film is about.
What's hot:
What really makes this film pop out as an experience is the IMAX experience. You see the wonderment and the respect, the arrogance and fear Petit feels, brought alive through Zemeckis's vision, Dariusz Wolski's superb cinematography and some compelling acting by Gordon-Levitt. That this team has faithfully brought to life and recreated the heist-like planning that went into the making of and the actual high-wire walk in New York. What you see JGL do during his time on the high wire over several minutes, however preposterously impossible that looks is pretty much how it actually went down. The film's emotional core -- propped up by Ben Kingsley and Charlotte Le Bon -- keeps this from getting nauseatingly self-indulgent.
What's not:
The introduction at the beginning borders on the caricaturish. The story actually happened and it does Petit's actual 'coup' great disservice by making the narration seem for fantasy-driven than anything else. It also doesn't help that an entire half of the film is taken up in the man's buildup to his big moment. You have to wonder how Petit goes from one height to another without really seeing an upward graph in his learning apart from the one-line teachings of Papa Rudy. You see technical knowledge being imparted and the teacher not quite understanding why his pupil wants to do what he wants to do, and somewhere in between, you don't really know how he got there without enough practice at such heights (the distance and potential risks being far greater at the Twin Towers than at the Notre Dame). Much time is spent worrying about his foot injury, but really that don't seem to hamper him in any way, so really why waste time there. But we all know what you came here to see. The good thing is, all these flaws are negated by the actual walk. It's visually compelling, but takes a little too long getting from point A to point B.
What to do:
It's an easy enough walk to the ticket counter. Take it. And tell your friends about it. Flaws and all, it still is well worth the price of admission.
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