The Walk is the latest and most visually gratifying film based on work of Philip Petit - the French high wire artist. As a slightly acrophobic person I must reveal that even the 2D version had many visuals which agitated butterflies in my stomach. The portrayal of Petit by Gordon Levitt is splendid especially given the fact that Levitt had to learn French and wire-walking for his role. The imagery is stunning. The use green screen (chroma key composting) has been done marvelously. But apart from the remarkable optical gratification, I found the film running short on substance. Almost three-fourth of the 2 hour film is only about the twin-tower act. Yes, the movie is named after the act-'The Walk'- but I would certainly have loved to see more about the life of Petit- his childhood, his romance, the making of the artist, the famed European circus circuit etc. Insertion of Kingsley's character as a mentor is perfunctory and very 'Americanesque'- my personal euphemism for sanitized, glib and insubstantial treatment of a subject. This was not a Marvel's superhero but a real life story. I would have loved the treatment of Petit's story to be like that of Spielberg's 'Bridge of Spies'- a tightly knit story touching all dimensions of a character. As a young man I would also have loved to see more of beautiful Charlotte le Bon's character. Some details and images of the original walk of 1974 wouldn't have been out of place before the end credits- they were missing.
At the end of 2 hours, 'The Walk' goes down in RAM and vanishes as the power is turned off. It doesn't touch the ROM or gets embedded in BIOS. Only some cookies - all visual- are left behind for the posterity. Yes, you know what I mean...
At the end of 2 hours, 'The Walk' goes down in RAM and vanishes as the power is turned off. It doesn't touch the ROM or gets embedded in BIOS. Only some cookies - all visual- are left behind for the posterity. Yes, you know what I mean...