Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in The Walk.
The Walk dramatises a story previously told in the Oscar-winning 2008 documentary Man on Wire - that of the 1974 attempt by Frenchman Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to cross between the World Trade Center towers on a high-tension wire.
Although the experience may be slightly less suspenseful for viewers of
the earlier film, The Walk is worth seeing alone for its mounting of the climactic feat. A new benchmark in vertiginous cinema, it demands to be viewed on the big screen.
After briefly invoking the French New Wave to portray Petit's street performer background, The Walk settles into a more traditional style as Petit meets circus tightrope guru Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley) and love interest Annie (Charlotte Le Bon). It's not long before he hones in on his high-wire aspirations and sets about training, recruiting accomplices and working through the mechanics of the stunt.
Director Robert Zemeckis effectively exploits all the sneaking around for several sweat-inducing set-pieces, and by the time everyone is high atop the buildings, racing against time to rig the wires correctly, the film can't help but harken back to Doc Brown's efforts during the climax of Zemeckis' 1985 classic Back to the Future. Zemeckis places much more emphasis on cutting-edge filmmaking technologies these days, and that emphasis can sometimes have a distancing effect. Not here. This film's road to its titular act is interesting and lively, but unremarkable.
The walk itself however, is truly a thing of beauty. For 20 or so glorious minutes, the film's technical aspects align seamlessly with its dramatic ambitions. The power of the moment is undeniable, and easily transcends any thoughts about the means employed to portray it. Gordon-Levitt is an appropriately charming lead, and even bears the film's decision to have him "host" the film in character from the Statue of Liberty's torch.
