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Joseph Gordon-Levitt could use some help with his French accent
B+On August 7, 1974, the day Richard Nixon resigned as the U.S. President, a French aerialist named Philippe Petit actually upstaged Nixon by spending 45 minutes walking back and forth on a high wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, some 1,350 feet above the ground. It took four decades for cinematic technology to develop to the stage where a filmmaker could do this feat justice. Finally, director Robert Zemeckis‘ The Walk can give viewers some idea of what Petit experienced.
The Walk follows Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) from his days as a Paris street performer through high wire training with the patriarch of a European circus family, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), to Petit’s lengthy preparation for what he called le coup. Petit and a handful of accomplices, including girlfriend Annie (Charlotte Le Bon), plan the operation as if it were an elaborate heist. Fortunately, one of the towers was still under construction, making building access easier. Still, Petit and his friends Eventually, they have to dodge security guards and race against time to finish rigging the line before workmen arrive.
First and foremost, the best reason to see The Walk is for the spectacular high wire sequence, which lasts nearly 20 minutes (about half the time of the actual walk). Robert Zemeckis has pulled off amazing technical feats his entire career, but the high wire sequence may be his most astounding set piece ever. The Walk is the rare movie that practically cries out to be seen in 3D, and on as big a screen as possible. In the right theater, some audience members may experience vertigo themselves. The film’s earthbound scenes are a mixed bag, though. Petit’s efforts to install the cable may seem a Hollywood invention, but nearly everything portrayed actually occurred, and The Walk has its share of nail-biting moments before Petit leaves steps off the tower. The movie’s biographical scenes aren’t nearly as good. Gordon-Levitt’s French accent seems as bad as Inspector Clouseau’s, but he makes up for it in boyish exuberance. Still, the movie never quite takes flight until Petit arrives at his destination. As a biography, The Walk is only so-so, but as a caper thriller, it begins to take flight, and when Petit actually steps into the void, the movie is soaring right beside him.
In this suspenseful scene, Joseph Gordon-Levitt tries to run his high-wire cable between the Twin Towers. Our full review of The Walk is now available on Silver Screen Cinema.
Photo credit: “Interview: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Don Jon)” (cropped) by Sidewalks Entertainment / Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0
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