The Walk (2015)
Yet, I never expected the film that I got.
I expected a somewhat standard biopic with a slightly more serious tone. Instead, I got what felt like a fast-paced heist film.
That is why The Walk is one of the best films I've seen so far this year: it can deftly balance between the more expository narrative of Petit's life and the intense high wire sequences that drive the film's heart.
Zemeckis as a filmmaker excels at this. He has proven in two of his previous films, Forrest Gump and Flight, that he can bounce back and forth between two distinct tones and make an amazing film out of them. In Forrest Gump, it was between romance, drama, and war; in Flight, between dark comedy, thriller, and courtroom drama. In The Walk, we get some very sentimental looks back at Petit's childhood at the same time as we see him escaping from the police in the streets of Paris or learning his craft from mentor Papa Rudy, played by Ben Kingsley. Later in the film, we see the persistent Petit dealing with his inner demons at the same time as the group is planning this "artistic coup." This deft balancing act makes The Walk succeed.
Of course, there are some other fantastic parts of this film, in particular Gordon-Levitt's performance. I've never been overly impressed with him, but he's also never given me a reason to dislike him either. Now, however, with this performance, I really like him. I did some research on the film before watching it and read that Gordon-Levitt learned fluent French and a flawless Parisian accent from his French co-stars. However, what really floored me is that he learned how to walk a high wire without assistance under the tutelage of Philippe Petit himself after only eight days. Eight days. He actually did a lot of the walking scenes in the film. This is a great deal of dedication on his part, and it really makes his performance stand out quite a bit. Do I think this is Oscar-caliber work? Not quite, but it's really close.
I also really like the score by Alan Silvestri. There's not much of one, but the two main elements are fast-paced jazz and a beautiful arrangement of "Fur Elise," only played during the film's climax. The jazz portions of the score really augment the heist portions of the film, while "Fur Elise" perfectly captures the artistry present in walking the high wire and makes the climax incredibly poignant and impactful.
However, what sets this film apart is the visual effects. Robert Zemeckis for the most part has been a highly visual filmmaker, evident in his handle of special effects in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, and his various motion-capture based films including The Polar Express. In The Walk, he brings all of these various techniques together to create some of the best CGI I've seen in film to date. What makes his use of technology perfect, however, is not the ability of the technology itself: it's the way in which Zemeckis commands it. Most of the wire-walking scenes in the film's climax were filmed on a soundstage with a real wire and reconstructions of the top two stories of the towers. This gives the entire finale an incredible sense of realism, even if most of the environment is actually CGI. At other times, Zemeckis uses selective colorization to great advantage, as well as limiting the color palette. The Walk succeeds because of his master of the visual side of filmmaking.
Overall, The Walk sets the fall movie season off to a great start. It showcases some great writing, pacing, and acting; however, that's not why you should go see it. The visuals present throughout the film make it worth seeing in a theater, preferably in a more immersive format (IMAX, 3D, etc.). There are some films that work well in these formats, and there are others that were made for them. This is definitely one of the latter.
My recommendation: Go see it in a theater.
Grade: 90
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