Man On Wire (2008)

I should stop watching movies for a few weeks because my good fortune has to run out sometime soon. For the second film I've seen in a row, a film starts out to be one thing mediocre and turns into something moving and profound about the human spirit. First for me was Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky," and now this.

I saw MAN ON WIRE mainly because of the award buzz it has been receiving. I expected to find it "interesting," particualrly since I had already read the award-winning childrens' book, "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" (which, by the way, is a cool bonus feature on the DVD narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal.

As it turns out, I got a lot more than I bargained for in MAN ON WIRE. I certainly expected a testament to the triumph of will, a story of mind over matter, and a tale of perserverance. The film, and the man -- Phillipe Petit, is all of these things. But imagine my surprise when MAN ON WIRE also turns out to be the best film about pursuing one's artistic muse and the beauty and passion of the arts that I have seen in a long time.

Petit, a tight-rope walker who has already navigated the space between the two towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, follows the construction of the World Trade Center in NYC like a wide-eyed child. He envisions walking the space between these newly-constructed towers as a potential spiritual experience...being up there in the clouds, higher than ever before. But how do you get that set up? There is no way that it would be allowed. What follows is a well-documented account of how Petit and his friends and associates managed to make it happen.

Though non-fiction, the recollections of these proceedings play out like as good of a film thriller as just about any fiction thrillers you'll see this year. I was suprised by the level of suspense!

To see Petit himself as one of the interviewees will come as a bit of a shock for those who don't know how this all turns out. One would assume that the man simply plunged to his death. Instead, he spends a mind-blowing 45 minutes between the two towers.

And an unexpected sense of witnessing true beauty washed over me.

This is the perfect case of what a documentary can do...it can make you care deeply about something that you never had an inclination to care about at all.

One thing that bothered me a little about MAN ON WIRE (and it's my ONLY complaint, really) is that some of the fictionalized recreations are shot in a slightly cheesy manner, calling attention to these ficticious moments of recreation instead of attempting to integrate them more seemlessly with real, non-fiction footage. I can only assume that this was the intent, but I tend to prefer "hardcore" documentaries vs. recreations.

That being said, the last 20 minutes or so of MAN ON WIRE blew me away with its discussion of the philosophy of art.

"Why?" Petit reacts to the #1 question he is asked after performing this feat with an equal sense of curiosity. Why are people asking him why? Why isn't the pursuit of art and beauty enough? What a great discussion. What an excellent documentary!

3.5 out of 4