Review: THE WALK

THE WALK  (DRAMA/BIOPIC) 
3 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale, Ben Kingsley, Ben Schwartz, Steve Valentine, Benedict Samuel
Rated PG for thematic elements involving perilous situations, and for some nudity, language, brief drug references and smoking.
123 minutes
Verdict: Robert Zemeckis's recreation of high-wire artist Philippe Petit's "artistic crime of the century" starts out kind of kooky, but pays off with breathtaking spectacle.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN THE WALK IF YOU LIKED:
MAN ON WIRE  (2008)
HUGO  (2011)
ANT-MAN  (2015)
FLIGHT  (2012)
PREMIUM RUSH  (2012)

THE WALK is absurd, but so is the true story it's based on.  In 1974, French performance artist Philippe Petit established himself as the undeniable world champion of high-wire walking for time immemorial by walking, kneeling, dancing and even laying on a wire cable 1,350 ft (400 meters) above the ground, fastened between the newly-opened Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.  It's about as impossible a thing that could be done that has very much been done.  There's a great documentary all about it and the years of planning it took to pull off the illegal stunt called MAN ON WIRE, which you can stream on Netflix, but Robert Zemeckis's new narrative film version is pretty good too, and spectacular in stereoscopic 3D.

The role of Petit is performed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose affectation of a thick French accent is a little goofy at first, but is coherent within the loony (or dreamlike, if you prefer) tone that is especially prevalent during the first half.  With instruction from seasoned high-wire performer Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley) and in collaboration with his girlfriend Annie (Charlotte Le Bon), a fellow street performer, Philippe begins preparing to cross the towers as soon as he learns of their construction, a plan he refers to as "le coup".  Assembling a team of similarly artistically-minded rebels to help him pull of the "artistic crime of the century", the movie shifts from a highly-stylized storybook fantasy in Paris to a heist thriller in New York.
As Petit, Gordon-Levitt narrates the film to the audience from his perch on Lady Liberty's torch, with the 1970s Manhattan skyline in the background, a narration that's occasionally intrusive, especially when it comes in during the climactic "walk", but eventually has a strong payoff.  Capitalizing on the 3D cinematography, the main point of which is enhancing the vertigo-inducing effect of the titular stories-high walk, Zemeckis fills up the rest with creative angles, transitions and effects akin to those in HUGO and LIFE OF PI, but without the clearly fantastical angles of those films.  The effect is whimsical at times, and at more times, it's only almost whimsical but also humorous, and the stranger than fiction, reasonably faithful accounting of events is modestly endearing in its own way.
The heist aspect of the story is when things really tie together with a kooky sense of humor, high stakes and edge-of-your-seat thrills.  We know how things will play out (especially if you've seen MAN ON WIRE, the events in which are nearly identical with a couple of major points not present in Zemeckis's film), but the progression of the inevitable hiccups and problem-solving is plentiful in humor and heart well-served by the characters.  The walk, which is lengthy, played out in approximately real time, is well earned and breathtaking in 3D, as Petit's cable cuts through the foreground, emphasizing the sheer depth down to the streets below.
It's not as precise as the wire-walker's steps must be, not by a long shot, but as the sum of its parts, it's a solid and definitely unique film that isn't quite a "family movie" in the usual sense, but that most families can enjoy together regardless.  The first two-thirds is really just amusing set dressing for the super-charged thrill of the climactic 'walk', though.

Images via TriStar