The Walk

There is much vertigo-inducing cinematography in Robert Zemeckis's chronicle of how 24-year-old French aerialist Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) walked across a wire that he and his accomplices strung between New York's ill-fated Twin Towers on the morning of August 7, 1974. Beginning with Petit standing atop the Statue of Liberty gazing at the World Trade Center, The Walk traces Petit's early days in Paris, where he was a street mime/juggler/unicyclist, first garnering attention by wire-walking between the towers of Notre Dame cathedral. Armed with advice from a circus-trained mentor (Ben Kingsley) and having the support of his girlfriend (Charlotte Le Bon), Petit arrives in the United States to begin the planning and execution of what he calls “the coup,” an illegal caper involving suspicious gear, disguises, and the logistics of shooting a wire from one tower to another. It all leads up to a digitally-created, death-defying 140-foot stroll—1,362-feet above the ground—as Petit crosses between the 110-story buildings eight times over the course of 45 minutes. Covering virtually the same ground as James Marsh's superior Oscar-winning 2008 documentary Man on Wire—based on Petit's 2002 memoir To Reach the Clouds—this whimsically fictionalized version suffers from way too much voiceover narration. Still, The Walk is a technically impressive biopic. A strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “Pillars of Support” behind-the-scenes featurette (9 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are the production segments “The Amazing Walk” (11 min.) and “First Steps: Learning to Walk the Wire” (9 min.), deleted scenes (6 min.), and a bonus UltraViolet copy of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package (on the Blu-ray release) for a so-so biographical drama.] (S. Granger)