Sunday 18 October 2015

The Walk

UK Release Date: 9th October 2015

In 1974, high-wire artist Philippe Petit recruits a team of people to help him realize his dream: to walk the immense void between the World Trade Center towers (www.imdb.com).

Director: Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Flight, Cast Away)

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, Guillaume Baillargeon

Joseph Gordon-Levitt doesn't look like Philippe Petit, the master of the wire, plus his french is a bit ropey. This doesn't stop him bringing life into this biopic, trading eccentric blow for eccentric blow, just as Petit did. Only a crazy, arrogant person of his calibre would do the insane things he intends. Petit's dream is to find the highest place to put his high wire, and walk on it. The Twin Towers, otherwise known as the World Trade Center, is that spectacle, to walk from tower to the other. A simple, but daring dream. A team is assembled, and a daring mission plays out. Petit is adverse and cold to his friends. Director Zemeckis fleshes out the story just enough to make Petit interesting. Petit's storytelling, guiding us through what we see, is awkward, breaking up The Walk's momentum. When Philippe's walk finally hits the screen, it's unnerving. Zemeckis takes us to places that documentary Man on Wire could not. These shots are incredible, beautiful and scary. The Walk is worth the watch for the end quarter alone, especially in 3D. 

3.5/5

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