Movie Review
Review The Walk
The Walk, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Joseph Gordon- Levitt, is a true story of a french man, Philippe Petit, who had dreams of walking on a tightrope between the twin towers in 1970's New York City.
The Walk is set in 1974 and is about a high-wire artist named Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who lives in Paris. He sees a photo in a magazine about the construction of the Twin Towers in NYC and gets the inspiration to walk a tight rope connecting the two buildings. This is highly illegal and very dangerous. He meets up with a girl named Annie Allix (Charlotte Le Bon) who falls in love with him and supports him with his dream. He finds a mentor and father figure in Pappa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), and five other accomplices who support him in this life or death adventure.
Dariusz Wolski does stunning work in the cinematography and the 3D is used surprisingly sparingly, though very effectively. Its based off of Petit's book as is the critically acclaimed documentary Man on Wire. I think in terms of an actual film, the documentary is probably superior. But The Walk does give us some of the best visuals of the year so far. In many ways the film is a love letter to the twin towers in its gorgeous recreation of 1970's NYC. The problem is that besides Petit, you don't really care about any of the supporting characters. There isn't much back story or depth to any of them with exception perhaps to Annie.
The documentary really captures the craziness of Petit and the movie does to a certain extent, but we still didn't get a good enough reason as to why he's doing what he's doing. Or why so many people are going out of their way to help him.
Essentially, this film has achieved an astonishing feat in wholly justifying a cinematic retelling of the true story. With that being said, there are details that're over-dramatized as can be expected from a Hollywood production in order to build superficial tension, or even those that're fictionally inserted to give a scene the fullest dramatic effect. Occasional moments remind us we're only watching a movie after all, whether it's some inspirational dialogue or the predictable action beats like someone tipping over at the worst time. Overall, its rare (live-action) PG rating allows the whole family to attend and enjoy the classic thrills, the frequent humor, and the ravishing vistas—what a charming feast!
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