Realising a magnificent obsession

HIGH-WIRE artist Philippe Petit had a magnificent obsession to walk the airspace between the two towers of New York's World Trade Center and pull off "the artistic coup of the century". In The Walk, director Robert Zemeckis chronicles Petit's absurd, audacious attempt to realise that dream, in the process placing us in the shoes of a man whose version of terra firma was a narrow steel cable high in the sky.

Zemeckis, a consummate dream weaver and special effects pioneer whose films include the Back to the Future trilogy, Forrest Gump and Cast Away, knows how to affect audiences with a dose of 3D magic. The up-in-the-air moments in The Walk are simply stunning and despite the fact that Petit's story was told in the Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire (2008), the new film feels fresh and entertaining.

It all started with a toothache. During a visit to the dentist in Paris - where he was working as a street performer - Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt in spirited form and wielding a dodgy accent) reads a magazine report about the Twin Towers, which when completed would be (at 415m and 110 stories) the tallest buildings in the world. Those towers symbolised something entirely different in the pre-9/11 era, presenting Petit with his personal Everest and the ideal backdrop for a stunt to trump all stunts. "It's impossible - but I'll do it," he says with stubborn certainty.