The Walk (2015) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Ben Schwartz, Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale, Steve Valentine Movie Review

The Walk (2015)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Joseph Gordon-Levitt in The Walk (2015)

On the Wire

Whilst his father wanted him to go in to the military, Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Premium Rush) becomes enamoured with performing and in particular walking the high wire. It is his interest in the hire wire which first led to him meeting Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley - Exodus: Gods and Kings), his mentor, and then Annie (Charlotte Le Bon) who he comes across one day busking in the streets of Paris. But for Philippe he has a desire to do something never been done before and that is to string a wire from the soon to be completed World Trade Centre Twin Towers in New York and walk across it.

Well "The Walk" certainly achieves what it sets out to do and as I see it that is three things. Firstly it wants to be a slightly quirky biopic with characters just that little bit over the top especially when it comes to Philippe and his obsession with wire walking. It then wants to tell the story of this great escapade to string a wire between the Twin Towers and walk between them, doing so repeatedly as the police wait at each end for Philippe to eventually walk in from the wire. Which yes is entertaining as we watch Philippe and his assistants sneaking in as builders, hiding for hours and even using a bow and arrow to fire a length of fishing line from one building to the next.

But the third thing, and the thing which for me is what "The Walk" ends up being about, and that is the visuals. Director Robert Zemeckis doesn't miss an opportunity to do some thing visual be it Philippe holding up a piece of string between two buildings to imagine walking between them to the whole rigging of a wire at the twin towers. And the scenes involving the twin towers from watching them rigging the wire to scenes of Philippe walking the wire are breathtaking.

What this all boils down to is that "The Walk" is a good movie, it has strong visuals, an entertaining storyline and of course the likeable Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead. But this is a movie which when it was over just felt like it was missing something and maybe that is some thing which makes you want to watch it again.


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