The Walk
Sony Pictures Releasing | Release Date: September 30, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critics
Positive:
33
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TimeJoe NeumaierOct 6, 2015
The Walk is a visionary high-wire act. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonOct 1, 2015
Working from a script co-written with Christopher Browne, director Robert Zemeckis (“Forrest Gump”) pulls off a fabulous trick of his own: delivering a mainstream entertainment that has, at its heart, a poetic sensibility. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 26, 2015
Zemeckis turns the event into a kind of blockbuster Cinéma Pur – an almost avant-garde game of composition, movement and perspective, exhilaratingly attuned to form and space. ("Mad Max": Fury Road did the same.) The camerawork is subtle and meticulous, the 3D head-spinningly well-applied. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernSep 29, 2015
The 17-minute wire-walking sequence is the most majestic simulation of a real event since the ship sinking in Titanic—a dazzling triumph of photorealistic digital effects, which exhibits Zemeckis’ mastery of both CGI and pace. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 26, 2015
What Zemeckis delivers here is an entirely different brand of spectacle from that which audiences have come to expect from recent studio tentpoles, sharing a true story so incredible it literally must be seen to be believed, as opposed to imaginary feats full of impossible CG creatures. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 26, 2015
Almost magically, The Walk transforms itself into a beguiling caper movie, full of comic energy and nimble ingenuity. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenySep 26, 2015
When you're watching something Zemeckis made, anything can happen, and reality is up for grabs. In this case, he's used his powers for good, and the end result is stirring and spectacular at times, with a devastating, if subtle, final line of dialogue. Read full review
80
Screen InternationalCharles GantSep 26, 2015
Zemeckis reminds us that it’s in the service of reality, rather than fantasy, that digital technology is often most potent. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 6, 2015
As a celebration of agility, ability, and outlandish human behavior, The Walk is a winning thing. It may not get inside the head of its pole-balancing protagonist - it doesn't really even try - but Zemeckis' movie takes you skyward. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 5, 2015
For those who buy into the precept that "good things are worth waiting for," The Walk unquestionably delivers. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 2, 2015
Ignore the tell and focus on the show, spectacular in every sense. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 1, 2015
After two hours of The Walk, I felt as if I’d walked the wire myself. I was agitated and exhausted. During the movie, I was squirming and wincing, and a few times even had to close my eyes, just to find some relief. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTom RussoOct 1, 2015
A narrative feature can do what the documentary couldn’t: re-create the tightrope act in full, glorious motion, rather than editing together surreptitiously snapped photos. These dizzying IMAX 3-D visuals truly are big-screen magic. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 1, 2015
This is a love letter to lunacy (and an unspoken tribute to the iconic towers) that lets you feel what it’s like to tread where only gods dare. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 29, 2015
It’s when the walk portion of The Walk arrives that this unevenly scripted, fact-based thriller achieves its full potential. Even without the suspense of uncertainty, the sequence achieves a bated-breath intensity and wonder. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallSep 29, 2015
A marvelous technical achievement when the director finally gets around to it. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 29, 2015
As breathtakingly gorgeous and well acted as The Walk is, if you had to choose between the doc and this solid fictionalized version, I’d say go with the documentary. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianJeff BakerSep 29, 2015
The rare movie that improves as it goes along, shedding its cliches and getting down to what matters. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 29, 2015
The Walk is the movie that takes us up there, gives us the jitters and makes us titter along the way. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickSep 27, 2015
In the end, The Walk finds a graceful way to pay tribute not only to Petit’s bravery and determination — but to the thousands lost on 9/11 in the buildings this daredevil loved so much. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleySep 27, 2015
In order to make the walk, and in order for it to matter to him, Philippe Petit has to comprehend it as real and impossible. Zemeckis teaches us the same lesson. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 26, 2015
The Walk is broadly written with two clunky first acts that are saved, arguably superseded entirely, by its nerve-wracking, majestic and spectacular finish. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 1, 2015
The problem — not fatal — with The Walk is that the narrative wire droops between the movie’s opening and final sequences. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 29, 2015
It would be swell if all of The Walk came together as beautifully as the computer effects do, but it would also be churlish not to appreciate what we do have. This film may not talk the talk, but it definitely walks the walk, and for that we are grateful. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 29, 2015
Zemeckis is a master of using effects, but his films sometimes don’t live up to them.... The Walk is different. The use of 3D, in particular, is so astonishing it practically wipes your memory of the silliness going on in France as Petit was learning his trade. Once Petit is on the wire, he is free, and the liberation is contagious. Read full review
70
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekSep 28, 2015
The Walk, in its last half at least, is a dazzling piece of work, particularly in 3-D; even so, its most luminous effect is an actor. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 26, 2015
Harnessing the wizardry of 3-D IMAX to magnify the sheer transporting wonder, the you-are-there thrill of the experience, the film's payoff more than compensates for a lumbering setup, laden with cloying voiceover narration and strained whimsy. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 2, 2015
I wish the film had done more – anything – to analyze Petit’s psyche. But he barely exists in the movie except as a certified daredevil. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenSep 30, 2015
By now, we’ve grown accustomed to the signature touch of Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump), who is one of the best creative minds to see the innovative narrative potential lying dormant in technical cinematographic advances. This does not always provide the underpinnings for great stories, but bien sûr his movies are almost always quite something to see. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzSep 29, 2015
This is ultimately a frustrating work. The Walk has everything it needs to be a modern classic, except for an understanding that when you have everything you need to make such a film, it doesn't need to hype itself and explain itself. It can just be. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 29, 2015
The Walk satisfies as an absorbing yarn of authority-flouting ad­ven­ture and as an example of stomach-flipping you-are-there-ness. The journey it offers viewers doesn’t just span 140 feet, but also an ethereal, now-vanished, world. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittSep 29, 2015
For those who want to feel like they're 110 stories up and living in the clouds, Hollywood does its job conjuring movie magic with a breathtaking Walk to remember. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 26, 2015
I cannot say how I'd feel about The Walk if I'd never seen "Man on Wire," because I did see "Man on Wire," and I can't un-see it. I love it. I can only say The Walk struck me as an honorable good try of an also-ran, though with some lovely things to offer. Read full review
60
CineVueOct 6, 2015
For all its storytelling shortcomings, The Walk is a must-see for its perilous, vertiginous, sweaty-palmed finale and its reminder that the Twin Towers can be remembered for much more than 9/11. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly RichardsOct 2, 2015
It’s extremely antic for the most part, covering a lack of real story with a lot of distracting quirk. Yet when Petit’s foot slips out onto a wire thousands of metres from the ground, it’s quietly mesmerising. Read full review
60
TheWrapDan CallahanSep 26, 2015
The Walk is that rare movie that might please practically everyone, from viewers just looking for a thrill to those who might enjoy a story that sounds like a tall tale but winds up being discreetly poignant. Read full review
60
Total FilmJosh WinningSep 26, 2015
A patchy biopic that only thrills when Gordon-Levitt finally steps out onto the wire. Still, for all the 3D showboating, it’s a touching tribute to the Twin Towers. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 26, 2015
Recreating the crime for The Walk, director Robert Zemeckis does a crackerjack job with the thrills and a so-so one with the laughs (at least the intentional ones) and skips the deeper magic altogether. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 1, 2015
The Walk is much less than the sum of its parts, except when the parts are so good you can’t ignore them. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorSep 29, 2015
As directed by Robert Zemeckis from a script he co-wrote with Christopher Browne, the film limps through its first two acts, putting in time until the big moment. Read full review
40
The GuardianNigel M SmithSep 27, 2015
The story The Walk tells is, admittedly, an unbelievable one, so it’s understandable Zemeckis should choose to leave subtlety at the door. Sadly, such an approach strips the film of tension, especially at the crucial moment. Read full review
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