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Man on Wire

5/10

Stars: Philippe Petit

Director: James Marsh

There are some amusing moments in this dramatised documentary about a French wirewalker's exploits in the early 1970s, but the film is more suited to showing on late-night TV. The fact that aerialist Petit helps to narrate the story means that he has survived, rather taking the tension out of his (illegal) wire-walks between the spires of Notre-Dame, the pylons of Sydney Harbour Bridge and, finally and most spectacularly, the ill-fated twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.

You have to admire the cheek and humour of the man yet, hard though the film tries, there's too little variation in his work to sustain big-screen interest over 90 minutes.

David Quinlan

USA 2007. UK Distributor: Icon. Colour/Black and white.
94 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 27 Jul 2008