The Walk

A few months ago I saw a trailer featuring a man climbing out on to the ledge of a towering skyscraper.  When the camera slowly revealed the man's view of the street down below I felt a little bit of vertigo.  Not knowing anything about The Walk, I immediately wanted to see it just because it looked so thrilling!  The fact that it is inspired by Philippe Petit's actual high-wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 made it even more compelling to me.  I finally had the chance to see it last night (I have been preoccupied with another little movie called The Martian...oh, and I also moved into a new house) in IMAX 3D and it is fantastic.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Petit and he prepared for the role by learning to walk on a high-wire (he trained with Petit himself) and learning French (I thought his accent was great).  He is absolutely endearing as a street performer who becomes enamored with a picture of the World Trade Center that he sees in a magazine and then becomes obsessed with walking in the air between the towers.  He recruits a series of "accomplices" to help him with his "coup" and these characters are often quite comical (Charlotte Le Bon, Clement Sibony, and Cesar Domboy).  Three-fourths of the film is an Inspector Clouseau-like caper as the team surreptitiously prepares for the walk and the rest of the film is a thrilling adventure that will have you on the edge of your seat.  The views while Petit is out on the wire are spectacular and, even though most of it is CGI, it feels very authentic.  The production design is incredibly stylized, first in black and white as Petit performs in the streets of Paris, then in vivid color as he trains at the circus, and then misty as he walks through the air in New York. I really enjoyed this film and I recommend that you see it in IMAX 3D.