This movie is based on Philippe Petit, the French high-wire artist’s, walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974. Studio: cubital tunnel syndrome
Plot: The true story of a young French man who staged an illegal wire walk between the World Trade Center towers.
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale
Rating: PG-13
Bottom Line: ***1/2
By Samantha Ofole-Prince
Taunt, tense but surprisingly funny, “The Walk” stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as French aerialist Philippe Petit, who in 1974 walked back and forth across a cable strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center
A high-octane drama, it opens with Petit talking directly to the audience while the twin towers stands in the background. He’s perched on the torch of the Statue of Liberty and it’s where he stays throughout the entire film as he narrates the story of how he came to climb what where were previously the tallest two buildings in the world.
The film, which is the subject of 2008’s Oscar-winning best documentary feature, “Man on Wire” then doubles back to Petit as a kid showing how he became mesmerized by wire walking after seeing local circus performers who came to his town in France. He then learns the skills of tightrope walking from Papa Rudy, a Czech mentor played by Ben Kingsley, falls in love with a street musician, Annie, played by Charlotte Le Bon, all while hashing out a plan to make his vision of walking across the towers a reality. The film then shifts into mission mode, and the set-up for the World Trade Center walk begins as he picks his eclectic accomplices for what has become to be known as the “artistic crime of the century.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the master director of such marvels as “Forrest Gump,” “Cast Away,” “Back to the Future,” and “Flight,” “The Walk” is an epic, brilliant, big-screen cinematic spectacle. Made in 3D, it gives moviegoers the chance to go where only one man has been or ever will be – 110 stories in the air, on a wire, walking between the towers of the World Trade Center.
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This was printed in the November 1, 2015 – November 14, 2015 edition.
