Critics rating : 3 Stars

Cast :  Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale, Clément Sibony

Direction : Robert Zemeckis

Produced : Tom Rothman, Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke.

Written : Robert Zemeckis, Christopher Browne

Genre : Adventure

Duration : 123 Mins

It seemed like a death wish but Philippe Petit would disagree. For him, it is the opposite. It is life – “C’est la vie,” says Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who does not resemble the high-wire artist but holds steadfast to an accent as close to capturing Petit’s exuberance as possible. The conversational tone yet excitement over the drama leading to his character’s feat in The Walk will be successfully reminiscent to those who have watched the Academy Award-winning documentary Man on Wire (directed by James Marsh), featuring the real subject and his fascinating crew of accomplices.

The Walk endeavours to narrate a fairly accurate account of the events leading to Petit’s scintillating walk between the Twin Towers in New York but adds its own rose-tinted Hollywood hue instead of the volatile characters and their complex relations from the documentary. Paris is shot in loving monochrome as the initial setting, with our whimsical hero unicycling his way down cobbled streets and juggling, walking the tight-rope to an enthralled crowd. That is where he meets Annie (Charlotte Le Bon, as demure and gorgeous as she was in The Hundred-Foot Journey), who is to be his love interest, an underutilised track.

The Walk expands upon Petit’s childhood, his sheer desire for the adrenaline-pumping tightrope walks and the role his mentor Rudy Omankowsky/Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley) had on his future acts.

The film skips over the ceremony to ordain priests during Petit’s walk between the towers of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, his walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and his aerial surveillance of the World Trade Towers through a helicopter. Those were all good sequences, but perhaps negated in favour of a more idealised, human tale which differs from the Man on Wire story, which focuses solely on his most memorable public stunts.
Everything in the film is leading up to the heart-pounding walk between the Twin Towers. Because Petit lived to tell the tale, we know he will succeed. The detailing on how he conned his way to arrange for the rigging of the wires will hold some interest for the audience. What the story lacks is the dynamic between the motley bunch of unlikely allies, all introduced in a hurry in order to drive the story ahead.

It will all be forgotten for the duration of the titular sequence. That is when Petit, one among the clouds, lowers himself onto the wire, one foot at a time, in its entire nail-biting, sun-rising, lens-flaring glory. To make a largely uneventful walk awe-inspiring takes masterful visuals; this alone suffices for the price of admission.

The Walk may not be as fantastic as certain poster testimonials of the film, claiming it to be a riveting thriller (to each their own), but the climactic scene and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance (it is evident that he spent a lot of time with his subject) make the film a worthwhile watch for those interested in seeing how Petit accomplished his incredible coup.