Zemeckis 3D high-wire biopic The Walk ‘giving audiences vertigo’

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the movie is surprisingly light for the subject matter and the special effects are state of the art. So if you suffer from vertigo, or happen to get carsick easily, maybe wait until The Walk comes out on Netflix.

Robert Zemeckis’ “The Walk, ‘ which is based on the infamous story of tightrope walker Philippe Petit, is causing nausea, and in a few cases, vomiting”. Sure, James Marsh’s striking 2008 documentary Man on Wire traveled the same road.

Recently, reports for the reviews of “The Walk” movie has been appearing online while it awaits for its release next month. For the first half of the film, we follow his mesmerizing journey from youth to thrill-seeking adulthood, where an early exposure to a tightrope walker gave him a dream to chase.

By the time the film gets around to the actual event, you’re more than ready for it, and still, somehow it more than exceeds your expectations. Which would be helpful were we not watching a movie about his history, his techniques and his plans. Over 100 stories and over 1,300 feet in the air Petit captured the attention of New Yorkers below when he walked between the towers for 45 minutes. Two enormous towers are being built in New York City.

The 34 year-old actor says the towers have played a leading role in this film. But the story that leads up to the crucial third act is good enough to be acquitted by the final set piece, which also doubles as a bit of a love letter to the World Trade Center towers. Zemeckis adds constant CGI flourishes, as if to distract from the mundane script he co-wrote with Christopher Browne, and there’s more duty than wonder to the backstory of Petit’s relationship with his mentor (Ben Kingsley).

There’s really only one reason to see The Walk, and that’s to see a dramatic recreation of Petit’s historic high-wire walk between the Twin Towers. Philippe drops his turtleneck, and for just a moment his accomplice on the ground thinks she sees a body falling in a disgusting death dive.

She took a break from filming The Promise in Spain with Christian Bale to attend the recent New York Film Festival premiere of The Walk which was shot in Montreal.

Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) narrates his own tale for us as we greet him from his perch on the Statue of Liberty in the film’s opening.