Too much of everything

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film is based on the true story of Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who walked on a wire between the towers of the World Trade Center. We know the climax ending before it starts. The film flashes back to Paris and his childhood as we get glimpses of his training and the people who help him along. I didn't see it in 3D and I was a bit underwhelmed. The tightrope at Notre Dame seemed rather fake, looking like he was walking on a floor.Yes a French guy with some help, walked across the WTC.

This movie really moved me as I can't stand heights and my heart rate went up hugely as I watched the walk as it was so realistic. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who speaks French fluently, was very good. The direction and cinematography were brilliant.

I really enjoyed this movie! I watched it last night (alas, on the small screen) and came in to work this morning recommending it to all my co-workers.The Walk recounts the remarkable true story of Philippe Petit's no-less-than-legendary tightrope walk between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.I was just a teenager when this remarkable exploit took place, literally above the heads of early-morning Downtown office workers, and only vaguely remember the way it happened, but watching this movie brought to the fore the background story of how Petit first became enamored of the Twin Towers and the immense planning that went into this stunt. I would imagine that few who know of Petit realize that he had quite a retinue working behind the scenes with him, so this movie is their story as well. Being a New Yorker (and one who works Downtown, no less), what I found so amazing in the retelling of this tale was the nonchalant way that Petit and his cohorts, during both the planning and execution of this feat, managed to access the upper deck of the World Trade Center virtually unchallenged while it was still in the very midst of being constructed! Anyone who works Downtown today (in the sad aftermath of 9/11) will marvel at how lax security was in those innocent times. Joseph Gordon-Levitt did a fabulous job in this role. He is so charming and so engaging as the goal-oriented, indeed obsessed, but always good-natured Petit. You cannot help but get swirled up in his enthusiasm for his plan, which he and his accomplices have dubbed "The Coup" for the extraordinary headline-grabbing event that it turned out to be. One of the things I loved most about this movie, in addition to the infectious élan of the protagonist, were the scenes of New York from 1974. Generally speaking, I do NOT care for special effects, but the CGI here was extremely authentic in the way it reconstructed New York from 40+ years ago. Considering how different this ever-changing city looked all those years ago, the effects were very realistic to the time. The scenes from the top of the WTC showing the streets below were nothing short of awesome and again, very realistic. Knowing Downtown as I do I was able to pick out many individual landmarks with which I am so familiar. I also loved the scenes - again, computer-generated - where Petit is narrating his story from the torch of the Statue of Liberty, with the 1974 outline of Downtown in the background, an outline which in reality is very different today since the advent of Battery Park City and World Financial Center (which were in fact built on landfill from the excavation of the WTC). This is my long-winded way of pointing out that someone did his homework in the making of this movie, and this New Yorker is thoroughly impressed with the finely detailed results! This movie was downright thrilling! It was extremely suspenseful, to a point toward the end where I was watching it curled up in a tense little ball and peeking through my fingers - even though I knew it was going to end on a triumphant note - as Petit performs his death-defying (and police-defying, LOL) antics on the tightrope he has so painstakingly rigged. Speaking of the ending, that was what I truly loved most about this movie. What I found so touching was the way the movie came across ultimately as a paean or love story to our beloved Twin Towers. It brought tears to my eyes.In conclusion, a very entertaining movie. (Perhaps a tad too long, but still wonderful.) I only wish I had got to see it on the big screen where it deserves to be seen. It takes almost a suspension of belief to grasp that the central event of this movie really took place. But it did. Only in New York.....

After watching this Acrophobia filled experience. I was left with my heart palpitating and my back was soaked from sweat. I wanted to turn away from the large screen but instead I amerced myself focused on our daredevil walker who kept on tormenting my senses. Over my many years of watching the cinema I've had a passion to watch alarming,unnerving, filled with shock value movies. I can't answer why I watch these films but I keep on searching for more of that genre which will probably keep me up for the rest of the night with covers over my head. This eager Frenchman who is about to attempt a coup as he calls it . Gathering his cast of characters to attempt the high wire walk between the World Trade Center towers. I was totally impressed with the work of our star Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Phillippe Petit. Now much older Joseph who I remember as the boy in the hit TV show Third Rock plays the part flawlessly with ease as the jaunty Frenchman who's goal is to walk some 200' across the twin towers buy August 1974. From working in a circus in Europe as a boy under the tutelage of his Father Papa Rudy played by the very distinguished Academy Award winning actor Ben Kingsley, Papa teaches young Phillipe how to tie knots and rope rigging which will comes in handy for his most outrageous profession. As the movie progresses as told by Phillippe as our narrator he meets his girl friend also a street performer Annie played by Charlotte Le Bon. Love the reality of a typical couple in New York always fighting as the goal of the walk get ever so close. Bumps in the road are the norm as accomplice after accomplice gather in one goal. Phillippe our pesky rope walker fills his obsession from that faithful day in the Dentist's chair when his vision/epiphany of walking across the twin towers was born. Other participants involved,Clement Sibony as Jean Louis, Cesar Domboy as Jeff. Ben Schwartz as Albert and Steve Valentine as Barry Greenhouse. I was overwhelmingly impressed with the cinematography mainly the visual effects as if you, the viewer where up on that rope some thousand feet in the air. The use of the clouds floating by at the beginning of the walk as you say to your self that's not so bad, and then a clearing of the city below with a crowd of ants, People watching up word in horror. Extremely sobering experience. My personal nature is to expedite a project and be done with it but not in this movie which frustrated me as our lovable flying Frenchman milks the opportunity for all the world to see.Bravo to Danusz Wolski for his direction of photography and to the hundreds of employees in the visual effects department. One thing I'll always remember is that Petit never walked alone. You the audience walked right alone with him.