Is there a such thing as spoilers on a movie that's based on true events?
Anyway:
The Walk
My Grade: A
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"The Walk" is biographical movie on acrobat Philippe Petit who in August of 1974 walked along a 200-foot long wire over 1400-feet over the ground at the top of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, then the tallest buildings in the world.
The movie is presented as a narrative by Petit (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) standing against a backdrop of WTC-TT-era NYC while in the Statue of Liberty's torch recounting the events that led up to this event from his street-performing days in France, training under a performing wire artist and finally the "coup" he carries out with friends in order to sneak to the top of the still under-construction WTC towers, suspend the wire, and for him to carry out his performance without the aid of any safety gear.
Overall, the movie plays out very well and is interesting especially considering that it's a true story and seems to more-or-less stay true to the real-world events, Petit himself even was involved in the production and in training Gordon-Levitt to perform wire-walking in the role. The movie also plays as something of a soft love-story to the WTC and is dedicated to those who died there during the events of September 11, 2001.
All of the actors in the movie who make-up Petit's crew, and girlfriend, do a good job but the movie is essentially a one-man show since Gordon-Levitt carries most of the weight in keeping the film balanced (see what I did there?) Everyone else does a good job, but this is Levitt's movie. I think he did a good job here, though I cannot say how accurate his French accent is compared to the a real-world one or the real Petit's. I assume it's accurate but to me at times it seemed a bit.... Le Pew-ish.
I did see the movie in IMAX 3D where there's been reports of movie-goers actually getting physically ill from the imagery from across the wire 110-stories off the pavement of the plaza the WTC stood on. Either I'm particularly strong-stomached when it comes to these things -though I'm no great fan of heights- or some people are especially weak-stomached.
Don't get me wrong, the movie looks great and makes great use of the "depth-3D" (as opposed to the gimmicky "things jumping at you 3D) but I can't say it made feel the "height" to the level of illness, motion sickness or even queasiness from being "on a wire far off the ground." Levitt, however, recreates the act and stunts Petit did very well and with the right level of arrogance Petit seemed to have when he did this stunt.
Zemeckis does some good directorial work here.
I think the biggest weakness in the movie is maybe not giving us a bit more with the side characters in the conspiracy of people who carried this out, though some of the people pulled into the events is interesting while at the same time feeling a touch Hollywood cliche'd, as do some of the things that happen during this; but I assume it's accurate and not made-up. Pending me researching more into the real-events.
Overall it's a good movie and I'd recommend seeing it at least in 3D as it does add something to the experience, I might also expect a Oscar nod for Levitt this winter as he does do a pretty good job here, accent not withstanding.
Overall, good movie and can't think of too much seriously wrong with it hence the high grade.
Anyway:
The Walk
My Grade: A
-----------------------
"The Walk" is biographical movie on acrobat Philippe Petit who in August of 1974 walked along a 200-foot long wire over 1400-feet over the ground at the top of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, then the tallest buildings in the world.
The movie is presented as a narrative by Petit (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) standing against a backdrop of WTC-TT-era NYC while in the Statue of Liberty's torch recounting the events that led up to this event from his street-performing days in France, training under a performing wire artist and finally the "coup" he carries out with friends in order to sneak to the top of the still under-construction WTC towers, suspend the wire, and for him to carry out his performance without the aid of any safety gear.
Overall, the movie plays out very well and is interesting especially considering that it's a true story and seems to more-or-less stay true to the real-world events, Petit himself even was involved in the production and in training Gordon-Levitt to perform wire-walking in the role. The movie also plays as something of a soft love-story to the WTC and is dedicated to those who died there during the events of September 11, 2001.
All of the actors in the movie who make-up Petit's crew, and girlfriend, do a good job but the movie is essentially a one-man show since Gordon-Levitt carries most of the weight in keeping the film balanced (see what I did there?) Everyone else does a good job, but this is Levitt's movie. I think he did a good job here, though I cannot say how accurate his French accent is compared to the a real-world one or the real Petit's. I assume it's accurate but to me at times it seemed a bit.... Le Pew-ish.
I did see the movie in IMAX 3D where there's been reports of movie-goers actually getting physically ill from the imagery from across the wire 110-stories off the pavement of the plaza the WTC stood on. Either I'm particularly strong-stomached when it comes to these things -though I'm no great fan of heights- or some people are especially weak-stomached.
Don't get me wrong, the movie looks great and makes great use of the "depth-3D" (as opposed to the gimmicky "things jumping at you 3D) but I can't say it made feel the "height" to the level of illness, motion sickness or even queasiness from being "on a wire far off the ground." Levitt, however, recreates the act and stunts Petit did very well and with the right level of arrogance Petit seemed to have when he did this stunt.
Zemeckis does some good directorial work here.
I think the biggest weakness in the movie is maybe not giving us a bit more with the side characters in the conspiracy of people who carried this out, though some of the people pulled into the events is interesting while at the same time feeling a touch Hollywood cliche'd, as do some of the things that happen during this; but I assume it's accurate and not made-up. Pending me researching more into the real-events.
Overall it's a good movie and I'd recommend seeing it at least in 3D as it does add something to the experience, I might also expect a Oscar nod for Levitt this winter as he does do a pretty good job here, accent not withstanding.
Overall, good movie and can't think of too much seriously wrong with it hence the high grade.
