Robert Zemeckis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt team for this high-wire act for the ages.
By Josh Lasser
The notion of walking a high-wire 10 feet above the ground can be terrifying for some. Imagine then what it must be like to be on one 110 stories above the ground. Or, don’t imagine. See director Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk.
The new film is the story of Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and his traversing a high-wire rigged between the Twin Towers in 1974. And, while the towers don’t exist anymore and one can’t imagine Gordon-Levitt traversing the chasm if they did, Zemeckis’ film makes you believe. It is a movie all about spectacle and it delivers that in spades.
Even before the climactic sequence—an utter triumph of filmmaking—The Walk is fully engaging. This is mostly attributable to Gordon-Levitt who gives an astounding amount of energy and enthusiasm in every scene. Petit is, as he makes very clear, a showman, and Gordon-Levitt’s performance is always on, imparting momentum that influences the entire film and keeps the proceedings moving forward at a brisk pace.
We want to hear it.
That pace works for The Walk, which is organized as a caper film – it is not just about the walk across the buildings but how the walk came to fruition. We see how Petit meets his “accomplices” (as he calls them), what inspires him to do the walk, how the plan is established, what draws him to such feats, and early successes as well as failures. Everything though in the movie drives towards the climax, nothing is extraneous.
Integral to the whole affair on a human level is Ben Kingsley’s Papa Rudy, the man who teaches Petit everything he knows about the high-wire. Kingsley is the only person in the film who matches Gordon-Levitt’s level of energy. Papa Rudy has a much more dour, concerned sort of energy as opposed to the exuberance of Petit’s, but it is the perfect counterpoint. There is a love and respect between the two men even if they don’t always see eye-to-eye. The scenes between the actors are magical and unfortunately too few.
Papa Rudy is not one of Petit’s group present on-site in New York. Instead, Petit has a rather motley crew led by his emotional support, his girlfriend, Annie Allix (Charlotte Le Bon). They, along with a few others—including a scared of heights math teacher, a photographer, and an insurance salesman—make this most unlikely of events take place.
The Walk does encounter some problems with these secondary characters. The last additions to the group come at nearly the final stages and we don’t end up with anything more than the shallowest of understandings of some members. Worse though, the love story between Petit and Allix is never fully realized and when the movie does end, that portion of the story is closed all too easily. There is no drama nor tension there.
The drama exists elsewhere. As a movie where the climax is never in doubt, what amazes about The Walk is the level of anxiety it still manages to impart. We watch as things keep going wrong, people keep getting in the way, and the whole endeavor appears ready to topple. It constantly feels as though the plan might not come to fruition even though we know it will.
We want to hear it.
More amazingly, Zemeckis and company pull off the walk itself. Watching Petit on the high-wire between the two buildings is an incredibly stressful experience, at least in IMAX 3D. He sits on the wire. He lies down on the wire. He is practically dancing up there between the towers and it is mesmerizing and terrifying all at the same time.
This is not to say that it looks entirely real, it is more hyper-real. However, the whole movie operates at that heightened level of reality and so when the walk itself occurs, it fits perfectly into everything that we have seen.
One of the main questions with a film so centered on the Twin Towers—they are truly characters in the movie—is how, or if, it will deal with 9/11 and their destruction. On that level, The Walk is an ode to them, a loving remembrance of their being built and their effect. It is a movie that is utterly respectful and reverential without needing to make big overt references to 2001 and as such successfully walks a high-wire all its own.
The Walk is an amazing film, and is so on multiple levels. Joseph Gordon-Levitt puts forth such an easy charm crossed with a fierce determination that it is impossible not to fall in love with Philippe Petit as he attempts what sounds utterly suicidal. The planning and set up of the caper are as fun as any heist movie. And, even though everyone watching knows exactly what the film is building towards, the climactic sequence delivers everything you want and more (especially if you’re afraid of heights).
