By Simon Abrams

Man on Wire
Directed by James Marsh


The biggest risk director James Marsh takes in Man on Wire, Marsh’s documentary about Philippe Petit’s daring tightrope walk between the Twin Towers in 1974, is in indulging Petit. Marsh allows the high-wire man to yammer away and tell his own story: And, strangely enough, it works. Petit is a bubbly, hyperbole-prone huckster with a glimmer in his eyes and frantic hands that speak faster than his quicksilver tongue. One minute he’s breathlessly exclaiming, “If I die…what a beautiful death! To die in the exercise of your passion!” and the next he’s “imagining the void” as he animatedly recalls his initial doubts upon first seeing the Twin Towers in person.

We ride alongside Petit as he re-enacts his experience just for the audience, springing to life as if it were the only thing he’s been thinking about for 30-plus years—which is a good possibility considering that it’s the event that propelled him on to write eight books, perform 37 major high-wire acts and star in four other documentaries about himself. If your life literally peaked at that point, I’d think you’d tell yourself that it’s fresh in your mind, too.

Marsh’s film may not probe very deeply into Petit’s character, or try to conjecture what his accomplishment means in a post-9/11 environment (probably because those Cloverfield folks beat him to it), but it does make for a wonderful caper, which is exactly how Petit envisioned it. Annie Allix, Petit’s ex-girlfriend recalls, “What excited him about this adventure…was that it was like a bank robbery.”

Marsh interweaves talking-head testimonials from friends and co-conspirators with Thomas Crown Affair-like dramatic re-enactments, complete with dueling split-screen images and typewriter-font prompts that detail what time everything happened the day before Petit’s walk.

While Marsh’s pacing and knack for dramatic re-enactments show that he’s grown leaps and bounds as a storyteller since 2005’s lumpy but ambitious The King, it’s Michael Nyman’s score that really brings Man on Wire to life. Nyman’s exquisite tunes, most of which are from his best-known work with Peter Greenaway, really elevate Petit’s story to the heights his singular act of derring-do deserves.