One of the things i hate the most happens to be heights/high falls..... This is the closest i'm going to get to facing that in real life. Anyway, to the review. 'The Walk' is a Drama Biopic about Philippe Pettit, the man who made it his mission, his dream, to walk on a wire between the World Trade Centre Towers in August 1974. This was a story that i had not heard about until this movie was announced, and when i heard of the premise, i thought it sounded very interesting and being directed by Robert Zemeckis only increased my intrigue. This movie looked really dramatic and suspenseful from the trailer, and was it? Well..... yes and no. The movie has a very slow burn, it started off quite flat and the entire first act was filled with introduction and setup that wasn't that interesting. The second act is where the film picks up and i started getting pretty interested in the story and just how Pettit was going to pull off this feat. But the third act is where the film hits its peak, the last 30 minutes or so was intense, edge-of-seat stuff that had me frozen with fear, but was it enough to make up for the slow build.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt played Philippe Pettit and although i do like him as an actor, he really didn't work in this role. Some of his performance was definitely convincing and dramatic at the big moments in the film but at all other times his performance was just distracting. My biggest issue was with the French accent he tries to put on, lets be honest, it was not good, like at all. It bothered me in the trailer and at the beginning of the film but i hoped that as the film went on i would get used to it and it would become part of the character.... Nope, it was obviously fake and distracting at the beginning and it was obviously fake and distracting at the end. It would initially seem like a minor gripe but it did take me out of the film quite a bit, especially during the first two acts, so it was a disappointment. My other issue was with the decision to structure part of the film as a narration, where you have sections that are just showing Gordon-Levitt narrating the current situation or hinting at what will happen next. These scenes really were quite pointless, they break up any of the tension that the film is trying to build up and what is described in these scenes you could have understood from the scenes preceding it and following it. I guess Zemeckis was going for something a little different but the film would have benefited more without those scenes.
Like i mentioned, the majority of the first act was rather flat; there wasn't really anything of interest going on. There were a few short moments focusing on his journey into the art of 'tightrope walking'(?) that i kinda liked and were alright scenes. The second act is where a lot of the build up was happening and it was feeling much like a heist film where you have intense planning stages and testing and where the stakes for later are introduced. I do like a good heist film, so this second act was very refreshing and definitely added to the big finale. And what a finale it was. It was grand, and tense and it really was a spectacle to see how it looked from the roof of the World Trade Centre. The visuals were incredible and you felt like you were hovering 110 floors above ground, sweaty palms and all. That final sequence was incredible and enhanced my overall experience watching this film. Also, the cinematography combined with the great visual effects made for a very visually beautiful film that was very cool to look at even when nothing really was going on.
So in the end, 'The Walk' suffers mainly from a slow first act and a distracting French accent. But the heist-like second act and the intense jaw-dropping finale make up for the early woes and the result is a good film that was worth watching if you are at all interested in the story. - 7.3
Joseph Gordon-Levitt played Philippe Pettit and although i do like him as an actor, he really didn't work in this role. Some of his performance was definitely convincing and dramatic at the big moments in the film but at all other times his performance was just distracting. My biggest issue was with the French accent he tries to put on, lets be honest, it was not good, like at all. It bothered me in the trailer and at the beginning of the film but i hoped that as the film went on i would get used to it and it would become part of the character.... Nope, it was obviously fake and distracting at the beginning and it was obviously fake and distracting at the end. It would initially seem like a minor gripe but it did take me out of the film quite a bit, especially during the first two acts, so it was a disappointment. My other issue was with the decision to structure part of the film as a narration, where you have sections that are just showing Gordon-Levitt narrating the current situation or hinting at what will happen next. These scenes really were quite pointless, they break up any of the tension that the film is trying to build up and what is described in these scenes you could have understood from the scenes preceding it and following it. I guess Zemeckis was going for something a little different but the film would have benefited more without those scenes.
Like i mentioned, the majority of the first act was rather flat; there wasn't really anything of interest going on. There were a few short moments focusing on his journey into the art of 'tightrope walking'(?) that i kinda liked and were alright scenes. The second act is where a lot of the build up was happening and it was feeling much like a heist film where you have intense planning stages and testing and where the stakes for later are introduced. I do like a good heist film, so this second act was very refreshing and definitely added to the big finale. And what a finale it was. It was grand, and tense and it really was a spectacle to see how it looked from the roof of the World Trade Centre. The visuals were incredible and you felt like you were hovering 110 floors above ground, sweaty palms and all. That final sequence was incredible and enhanced my overall experience watching this film. Also, the cinematography combined with the great visual effects made for a very visually beautiful film that was very cool to look at even when nothing really was going on.
So in the end, 'The Walk' suffers mainly from a slow first act and a distracting French accent. But the heist-like second act and the intense jaw-dropping finale make up for the early woes and the result is a good film that was worth watching if you are at all interested in the story. - 7.3