Philippe Petit is a fascinating man. He’s the French tightroper who walked in between the World Trade Center towers in 1974. Petit’s life is already well covered in the great documentary, Man on Wire. In The Walk, Director Robert Zemeckis wants to take you out on that wire with Petit. All the waste of time that is the movie’s first hour and a half stops cold with that death defying first step.
Before that moment though, we pointlessly meander through the lead up to the big event. Philippe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, bastardizing the French-American accent) is a street performer who dreams of one big moment. One day, he sees the two towers and realizes his moment has arrived. With the support of his beau Annie (Charlotte Le Bon), Petit furiously begins training under famous walker/trainer Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley). After enough practice, Philippe and Annie head to New York. They assemble a team to help infiltrate the site and set up the wire apparatus. The setup leads to the fateful night of August 6, where the team breaks in and sets up the wire in hopes that Philippe will complete his dream.
Zemeckis’s big mistake is assuming there is enough material to make The Walk the highlight of the film. Man on Wire makes Philippe the story, thus providing a fascinating denouement after traversing the towers, while focusing on the charismatic walker, which is consistently more engaging. The resources devoted to recreating the walk severely shortchange any sort of character development for EVERY character, including Philippe. Characters are given one note to play: dreamer, love interest, scared of heights, etc. The better actors do the best they can with the thin characters, but the novice actors leave no impression or worse. This makes the first hour of the film sleep inducing, treading water until we get to the actual planning on August 6th. The heist part is better, as Zemeckis at least generates tension for all the moving pieces that have to work to be successful. But still, the audience is waiting for that first step.
And oh man, that’s worth at least a star and a half alone. The 30 minutes on that wire are just breathtakingly recreated. If you have ANY aversion for heights, please do not see this film. Philippe walks more than a few times from tower to tower, and each turn, step, movement leaves gasps as Zemeckis shows just how high the man was above the world. The Walk also works as a love letter to the World Trade Center, which is no longer with us. The movie hammers this point home too hard, but the simple highwire act makes those towers part of a magical moment in US history not involving terrorism. The Walk cemented their place and personality in New York City, reinforcing America’s belief in the dreamers. It choked me up a little, and might do the same for you too.
The best way to watch The Walk is to see Man on Wire up until August 6, 1974, then watch the last 30 minutes of The Walk, then go back to Man on Wire. The Walk by itself might put you to sleep or frustrate you before you even get to the big moment. It’s too bad, because Philippe’s whole story is fascinating and dreamlike to experience. Let’s not forget that’s France’s 2nd great contribution to America; the Statue of Liberty has also inspired the tired, poor, and hungry to dream for something great.