What would you prefer at a height of 415 meters, hanging on a ledge or taking a high-wire walk? Smart people would preferably choose to be a witness to such an event. The story belongs to Philippe Petit and his walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. The man might not appeal smart as expected. But he would still dare to kiss the ropes with his feet at such a great height.
The build-up to the plot starts somewhere in Paris during 1970’s where Philippe was potentially sorting himself for the dream of his life. And while disrupting a singing performance at a corner of the street, he met his lady love Annie played by Charlotte Le Bon. Both fell for each other quite easily for the dreams they have. Obviously, it’s a practical love and not the usual for the mainstream. Unfortunately, it just happens quite a lot in the real world. Philippe also took some lessons from Papa Rudy played by Ben Kingsley for a high-wire walk. Papa Rudy gave him the insights that he would need. But as the actor made the quote, “I was always searching. Looking for the perfect place to hang my wire”, his focus shifted from Paris to New York for the newly built, Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. And to successfully implement the most dangerous and insane act of the century, he managed to pull in some trustworthy friends as well. The change of the premise from Paris to New York was done wonderfully by the director. Even the smallest details for the coup has been worked out well. The supporting cast is tremendous. Jean-Louis (Clément Sibomy) and Jeff (César Domboy) were equally good and shared a decent screen space with the lead actor.
The actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, was trained personally by Philippe Petit for his theatrical performance. Though, the CGI or the computer generated graphics was complementing the plot. The cinematography by Dariusz Wolski is excellent and is enchanting quite similar to his previous work for The Martian. But when it comes to directing an event such as this for the mainstream entertainment, Robert Zemeckis becomes the obvious choice given the fact that he directed critically acclaimed movies such as Back to the Future, Forest Gump, Contact, Cast Away, and Flight. Together with Alan Silvestri, Mr. Zemeckis has the potential to connect beautifully with the audience. The duo is quite similar to the more familiar, Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer. Although many would still prefer the Nolan-Zimmer but the Zemeckis-Silvestri is somewhat more original.
However, the narration by the lead actor standing at the top of the Statue of Liberty wasn’t necessary. The film would have performed well without showing the visuals of the narration. But I cannot blame the director as he is a little old-fashioned with his improvisations. It is recommended for those who would love to see Mr. Zemeckis adapting to the three dimensional world of entertainment.