People (usually critics) like to opine about the
proliferation of CGI and effects-driven films that saturate the multiplexes,
and it’s true that a lot of these films (and by extension, their effects) are
slapdash efforts that arise out of bloated blockbuster budgets. But that’s not
always the case: used properly and with purpose, digital effects can be a
useful tool for a filmmaker. This scornful view of CGI comes mostly from the
fact that while it’s easy to pick out bad examples of CGI, successful effects
are often invisible. The best examples are ones tied directly to story, adding
a sensory experience to an already compelling narrative. Even something like 3D
can — in the right hands — transcend the realm of cheap tricks to dramatically
alter the experience of watching a film.
Robert
Zemeckis’s “The Walk,” for example, makes exhilarating use of the IMAX 3D
format as it breathlessly recreates French tightrope artist Philippe Petit
(played here by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) most daring act. There’s already one
great movie about Petit’s stunt, James Marsh’s Oscar-winning documentary “Man
on Wire,” but instead of feeling unnecessary, this film functions as a nice
companion piece to that documentary. The 3D effects don’t just provide
immersive atmosphere, but take us to places that wouldn’t otherwise be
possible, putting us up on the wire right alongside Petit.
“The Walk”
dramatizes Petit’s real-life (and highly illegal) walk across a wire stretched
between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Petit narrates the
tale, which begins in France. Detailing the performer’s origin story, Zemeckis
goes a bit overboard on the whimsy in this section, presenting street scenes of
Paris in black-and-white with random bits of color. We see Petit ride around on
a unicycle, juggling and wooing a pretty busker named Annie (Charlotte Le Bon),
and later learning the tricks of his trade by studying under a Czech acrobat he
calls Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley). It’s all a bit exhausting. Petit delivers this
narration directly to the camera while sitting atop of the Statue of Liberty,
and while the device is unabashedly hokey, it fits in with Zemeckis’ tone of a fairy
tale-ish heightened reality, and you eventually get used to it. Though
occasionally putting us inside Petit’s headspace, the constant narration has a
tendency toward hand-holding, spelling out the emotional temperature of the
each scene we’re watching.
Things pick
up considerably once Petit travels to New York to stage “the coup,” as he
refers to it. Zemeckis’ digital effects recreate an immaculate portrait
of 1970’s New York City, and he stages the action as a heist, with Petit
rounding up a team to help him pull off his daredevil scheme. Standouts of the
crew include a photographer named J.P. (James Badge Dale) and shy Jeff (César
Domboy), who wants adventure but happens to be afraid of heights. Together they
help sneak the necessary equipment into the building and past security while
working out the many problems that arise along the way.
As you might
expect, the film’s centerpiece is the extended sequence documenting Petit’s
walk across the wire, and it is legitimately breathtaking (I admit that I
caught myself holding my breath during much of the sequence). Containing
moments of unbelievable beauty, it’s as pure a distillation of movie magic as
you can get. It even leads to a relatively subtle and moving elegy to the
Towers themselves, acknowledging their ultimately sad place in our country’s
history.
Gordon-Levitt’s
performance is quite good; yes, he lays it on pretty thick with the accent, but
he captures Petit’s manic intensity and flair for the theatrical. He’s perhaps
even better during the actual walk: often without dialogue, he expresses every
bit of the exhilaration and joy Petit is feeling.
Zemeckis has
always enjoyed melding his narratives to the latest special effects techniques,
and “The Walk” is no different. The film was released in IMAX 3D last Friday,
and expands to traditional theaters this week. But if you’re going to see the
movie, it’s worth springing for the additional cost. Though I’d caution that if
heights aren’t your thing, it might be a good idea to skip this movie: You
absolutely feel as though you are suspended 110 stories above the streets of
New York City, about to step into the void.
This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2015.
