In 1974 a Frenchman amazed New Yorkers by walking across a wire strung between the still-in-construction towers of the World Trade Centre.
THE WALK
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, Ben Kingsley, Clement Sibony, Cesar Domboy, Steve Valentine, Ben Schwartz, James Badge Dale, Benedict Samuel
Rating: (PG)
Four stars (out of five)
In 2008, the documentary Man On Wire retold Philippe Petit's incredible feat and won an Oscar.
So when I saw the trailer for The Walk (Rialto) my immediate reaction was displeasure; the fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt, playing Petit, seemed to have the worst French accent did not help.
Then I saw the film and an odd thing happened: what had seemed so bad in the trailer did not trouble me in the least, even when Gordon-Levitt spent great chunks of the movie declaiming straight to camera.
It seemed perfectly in keeping with Petit's character.
A single-minded egomaniac, Petit would recount how clever he had been, all the while perched atop the Statue of Liberty.
Although director Robert Zemeckis shows us the beauty in the danger, he can not let this small piece of heroism stand alone, making it a symbol of something greater and so sends this elegant film to earth with a thud.
• Christine Powley
