Hollywood is really big on its
biographies. It wouldn’t be a surprise if this film isn’t one of the top contenders
at the Academy Awards this year. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, most known for
films like Cast Away and Forrest Gump, The Walk is a visually enthralling
account of the famous French high-wire artist Phillipe Petit, and the stunt
that he pulled walking on a tightrope in between the Twin Towers of the World
Trade Center in 1974.
Born in France, Petit (played by
Joseph-Gordon Levitt) is perpetually busy in finding the perfect spot to attach
his tightrope. Coming across pictures of the World Trade Center, he makes an
elaborate plan, involving friends and accomplices, to execute ‘le coup’, where
he illegally and secretly installs a cable between the Twin Towers, and in full
public view, makes a full 45-minute long walk.
The Walk has the elements and
thrills of a stereotypical heist movie, without the fundamental locus of an
actual robbery, and instead, driving around a seemingly impossible mission of a
young man wishing to pull off what he thinks would be ‘the artistic triumph of
the 20th century’.
Joseph-Gordon Levitt jumps deep
into the persona of the high-wire artist. His expressions, the look of innocent
excitement, the look of bewilderment on viewing the spectacle that were the
Twin Towers, the French accent, are all on point and a Grade-A Levitt presentation.
The film boasts of a well-picked star cast, such as the beautiful Charlotte Le
Bon, veteran actor Ben Kingsley and James Badge Dale, but all their sincerest
efforts get overshadowed by Levitt’s grand aura.
A visual marvel, The Walk will be
quite the tightrope for patients of acrophobia. The eponymous sequence, with the view of New York
City in the background, is maddeningly beautiful, and terrifyingly immersive.
The entire time, the audience seems embroiled in confusion; whether to bow
before the spectacle that was created by Petit, or to scorn the man for the insane
show of guts he put forth, walking, bending, jumping on a slim metal cable half
a kilometre above the surface of earth.
Verdict – 4 out of 5 stars
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The Walk is beautiful in the
sense that it is quite a simple story of a simple man, building upto something
so grand, so mind-numbing, that few movies in the industry have been able to
offer.
