'The Walk': The film does nothing to analyze Philippe Petit's psyche
It鈥檚 a clich茅 that movies can transport you to places you鈥檝e never been,聽and never will be, but Robert Zemeckis鈥檚 鈥淭he Walk,鈥� at least for its final 40聽minutes or so, really delivers on that premise. What comes before in聽the movie, however, takes you to places you鈥檝e visited, literally and聽figuratively, too many times in too many mediocre movies.
The "walk" in the film鈥檚 title refers to the 1974 aerial feat where 24-year-old Philippe Petit, played in the movie by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, walked聽back and forth across a cable strung between the twin towers of the World聽Trade Center. The who, what, when, where of this particular act of bravery,聽or madness (take your pick), were well delineated in James Marsh鈥檚 2008聽documentary 鈥淢an on Wire鈥� 鈥� which I saw at the Sundance Film Festival,聽after which Petit bounded onstage and, no joke, tripped.
By contrast, Zemeckis鈥檚 film, co-scripted by Christopher Browne from聽Petit鈥檚 memoir 鈥淭o Reach the Clouds,鈥� doesn鈥檛 do an especially good job聽of examining Petit鈥檚 monomaniacal desire to be a high-wire walker. We鈥檙e聽given the usual movie tropes: shots of the rapt young Philippe watching a聽circus act or, later on, juggling and wire-walking for spare change on the聽Left Bank, etc. The progression of his skills, aided by a paternal circus聽mentor (Ben Kingsley, in a role that embellishes the true story), is not聽excitingly, or even convincingly, displayed.聽
He seems to go from bumbler to master in record time, as he makes聽headlines walking the high wire between the two towers of Notre Dame. Then, moving to聽New York with his twinkly girlfriend (Charlotte Le Bon), and a team of聽accomplices, he sets his sights on the almost-completed World Trade聽Center. (Zemeckis downplays the 9/11 portents.) Up to this point, the film has a jaunty inauthenticity. Gordon-Levitt is a聽sprightly performer with a balletic grace, but he is required to narrate an聽undue share of his lines directly to the audience, starting at the beginning,聽where the camera pulls back to reveal him perched atop the Statue of聽Liberty, no less. Even worse, his accent makes him sound like Pep茅聽Le聽Pew.
The high-octane narcissism that would propel Petit literally into the聽stratosphere is soft-pedaled. He just seems like a harmless obsessive.聽More than that, the film buys into the line that he is an 鈥渁rtist.鈥� But there聽is no attempt here to separate out the performance art from flat-out lunacy. If Petit had failed in his attempt to walk the wire across the twin towers, and perhaps killed accomplices or pedestrians along with him, all聽this talk of artistry might have had a distinctly different cast.
But of course, as the world knows, he did succeed and even got off聽without doing jail time. The walk itself is the film鈥檚 central, and only, real聽achievement, but it鈥檚 a doozy. Zemeckis puts us right up there with Petit聽as he stealthily, methodically makes his way back and forth across the聽wire, strung 100 stories high. We are even afforded dubious multiple聽opportunities to look down at the city from Petit鈥檚 perch, a luxury Petit聽himself for the most part avoided.
Despite its nail-biting aspects, there is an almost becalmed atmosphere聽to this sequence. (The attendees at my screening who reportedly ducked聽into the rest rooms during the more vertiginous moments may disagree.)聽Like Petit, you never want it to end. You want to remain with him聽suspended in midair. This dreamlike feeling could only be achieved, I聽think, because we know it all came out all right.
I wish the film had done more 鈥� anything 鈥� to analyze Petit鈥檚 psyche.聽But he barely exists in the movie except as a certified daredevil. When, in聽a quick blip of a scene, he breaks up with his supportive girlfriend at the聽end, it comes out of nowhere and just points up the fact that we really聽know nothing about this guy except that, as one cop says, he鈥檚 鈥済ot guts.鈥�
The film left me with a tantalizingly unanswered question: If Petit聽could only achieve bliss through acts of almost unimaginable daring, what聽must life be like for him now? It would have been far less 鈥渃inematic,鈥� but聽a movie about the transition of Petit into senior citizenship would have聽been a doozy, too. Grade:聽B- (Rated PG for thematic elements involving perilous situations, and for some nudity, language, brief drug references and smoking.)鈥�
