Film review: The Walk

Director Robert Zemeckis employs the visually stunning motion-capture technology he honed on The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol for this dramatisation of French daredevil Philippe Petit’s incredible walk along a wire strung between the two towers of the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974.

Philippe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) hones his circus skills on the streets of the French capital, where he meets his first accomplice, Annie Allix (Charlotte Le Bon).

A newspaper article about the construction of the World Trade Center fires Philippe’s imagination and he concocts a hare-brained scheme to traverse the 140 feet of air between the two buildings.

Circus ringmaster Papa Rudy (Sir Ben Kingsley) helps Philippe prepare for the physical rigours before the wire walker flies to the Big Apple with Annie, official photographer Jean-Louis (Clement Sibony) and Jean-Francois (Cesar Domboy), who is afraid of heights.

Philippe adds some American insiders to the team, who will simultaneously break into the two buildings and secure a wire under the cover of darkness so Philippe can begin his record-breaking walk as the sun rises over the city.