MOVIE REVIEW - The Walk

The new movie, The Walk is out with Joseph Gordon- Levitt, and is totally worth seeing.

This is based on a true story from 1974 about a French tight-rope, or wire-walker, Philippe who sets out to walk a line between the twin towers of the World Trade Center.  This movie in itself is a balancing act between a really interesting story, and one bogged down in the slow build-up.  But in the end, the movie saves itself.

The World Trade Center was not quite finished when Philippe decided to attempt this incredibly illegal, and questionable stunt.  So much of this movie, is the planning, and calculating on how to get the wire stretched across the 140 foot span between the towers, at a height of around 1,400 feet above the street.  And being honest, that is pretty interesting stuff on how they did it.  There's just way too much of it.  Yes, this movie bogs itself down in its own intelligence for a while, and you may be on the verge of yelling, "C'mon!  Let's go here!"  Then it pays you off like you never see coming.

The actual walk is so wonderfully done that the slow burn to get there is a distant memory.  It is spine tingling, and very intense.  The photography and the way it is done, you are out there on the wire with Philippe, and you are nervous with sweaty palmed stuff.  Plus, I saw this in splendid -D, and that was done wonderfully too.  This is also available to you in IMAX in some areas and that would be terrific. There have been reports of patrons getting sick from the dizziness, the angles and the heights, which I guess is a possibility. But for me, it was simply thrilling.  I walked across a wire between the World Trade Center towers, and I couldn't fall.

Among the things this movie does very well, is pay tribute to the now vanished towers.  It is good to see them in all their glory again, proud and majestic.  Philippe honors them in his dialogue, as does the movie by painting them as to what they really were. Structures so incredible, they became living, breathing things till the end.  That is a really nice surprise in this movie. When it could have been easy just to use them as props.

The Walk. Thrilling, wonderful and worth the watch.  Go get a thrill!