Film Review: Not Too Many Good Reasons to Experience ‘The Walk’

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CHICAGO – I am not opposed to dramatic retellings of true events from history, but I think the drama should at least be as entertaining as a PBS documentary on the same subject. “The Walk” tells the true story of a French wire walker and the twin tower World Trade Center in the mid-1970s…when he strung a wire between them, and then proceeded to walk from one tower to the other without a net more than a thousand feet in the air.

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.5/5.0
Rating: 2.5/5.0

While its vertigo inducing finale delivers the goods, “The Walk” can’t quite justify its own existence especially since there’s a perfectly fascinating documentary about the same subject readily available. For a movie that is supposed to be a visual spectacle, it spends an awful lot of time violating the classic rule of cinema by telling instead of showing.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, sporting an exaggerated but not entirely ridiculous French accent, stars as Philippe Petit, a wire walker who dreams of performing the most incredible wire walk in history. He narrates nearly the entire film, and nary a minute goes by when his voiceover isn’t yapping away. And the film takes its own sweet time getting to its purpose for being.

”The Walk” opens everywhere on September 30th in 3D and IMAX 3D. See local listings for 3D/IMAX theaters and show times. Featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale, Ben Schwartz, Cesar Domboy and Steve Valentine. Screenplay by Robert Zemeckis and Christopher Browne. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Rated “PG

StarContinue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of “The Walk.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in ‘The Walk’
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Releasing

StarContinue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of “The Walk.”

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