Real life wire walker Phillippe Petit walks a thin wire between life and death, in Robert Zemeckis’s latest feature, “The Walk”. The film the true story of a young dreamer, Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and a band of unlikely recruits who together achieve the impossible: an illegal wire walk in the immense void between the World Trade Center towers. With little more than nerve and blind ambition, Petit and his ragtag crew overcome daunting physical obstacles, betrayals, countless close calls and overwhelming odds to beat the system and execute their mad plan. It’s certainly nice to see Zemeckis directing a film back into the world of adventurous storytelling where he belongs, and that welcome home party couldn’t be sweeter for the man’s best film is easily a decade. I saw “The Walk” in an IMAX 3D experience, and it is definitely the only way to see this film. The effects in third dimensional filmmaking go well beyond the tongue and cheek methods of having an object fly off the screen at you. In addition, Zemeckis crafts some wonderfully shot scenes in Paris that alter between color and black and white. The shading of such an effect complete with Levitt’s impeccable storytelling, creates an almost bedtime story atmosphere for a film so tense. On the effects side of the 3D are several tight edited cuts of wires, sticks, and even snaps that comes zinging at your face. While i’m not much for cheap jump scares, i can safely say that Zemeckis earns his jumps by sucking the viewer into a tense atmosphere where we feel like anything can happen, and then throw a curve ball from out of nowhere which reminds us how dangerous each scene is before it’s too late. I want to talk about the work of Levitt as Petit because he is the perfect everyman for such a story. Levitt’s charming charisma as he narrates through such a story is the perfect blend between the dramatic dialogue when Phillippe is fighting for his dream, and the surprisingly well done comedic tones that the movie had. After seeing three different trailers for the movie, i was quite surprised how many times i laughed during this movie, and it works as the perfect off-set for CGI landscapes that will have you nearly falling out of your seat in acrophobia. Joseph has come quite a long way in his dramatic acting, and his facial reactions tell a story much deeper than the words spoken on screen. On top of this, Charlotte Le Bon plays the yin to Levitt’s yang, as a love interest who he meets while performing on the same street as her. There’s a tough exterior, but soft interior to her character, and it’s a real pleasure that this story goes well beyond it’s tellings of Phillippe’s story. The third act of the movie is a little uneven when compared to the first two acts that tell of the planning. It’s really impressive to see what goes in to planning such a feat, and the movie does a superior job of tackling all of the hurdles of seen and unseen obstacles that stand in the way of this walk. What bothered me about this was that the first 90 minutes are the setup, with the final half hour being the actual walk. This wouldn’t have been a problem, but everything feels sort of anti-climatic once the first steps are taken by Phillippe. It’s almost like the story doesn’t know where to go that wouldn’t drop it into predictable territory for anyone who has read his story. I mentioned before that the wide shots of the New York City landscape are impressive, but i could’ve used more of the POV shots from Petit’s stance. It was in those scenes while looking down when the journey felt the longest with the most to lose. Overall, “The Walk” is a must see theater event that takes you one step at a time with this incredible mission. It’s a total gimmick of a film for it’s images, but they never feel cheap or overdone. It’s a movie that joins 2014’s “Interstellar” as one of those complete theater experiences.

8/10