Man on Wire (2008)
Directed by James Marsh
On August 7th 1974, French tightrope walker Philippe Petit stepped out on a high wire, illegally rigged between New York's World Trade Center twin towers, then the world's tallest buildings. After nearly an hour of performing on the wire, 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan, he was arrested. This fun and spellbinding documentary chronicles Philippe Petit's "highest" achievement.
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What critics compared Man on Wire to
James Marsh, an Oscar winner for “Man on Wire,” has cracked the Hawking code with “The Theory of Everything,” a movie that fuses Hawking’s disability, brilliant mind and rich personal life in a portrait that mirrors the mysteries of the vast universe with those of life on this terrestrial plane.
It’s something of a tribute to Marsh — whose skills are generally far better used in his documentaries like Man on Wire than in undistinguished narrative work — that he doesn’t betray the onset of Stephen’s disease in one melodramatic-cough-to-signal-he’s-dying moment.
To date, Marsh is best known for tougher fare, whether it be the documentaries Man on Wire and Project Nim, or the dramas Wisconsin Death Trip and Shadow Dancer; one wouldn’t have imagined him at the helm of an inspiring, life-affirming tear-jerker.
The director James Marsh (of the superb documentaries Man on Wire and Project Nim) and screenwriter Anthony McCarten compensate by creating a meltingly sweet romance in the early scenes, building to Jane’s declaration to Hawking’s father (Simon McBurney) that, no matter the dire prognosis, she and her love will fight the disease together.
Theory director James Marsh is actually best known for his docs (he did the lauded Man on Wire and Project Nim), but here he’s determined to string Cupid’s love bow and buff Oscar’s golden bod rather than win any kudos for scientific accuracy.
As such, it’s something of a disappointment for fans of James Marsh, director of such excellent documentaries as Man on Wire and Project Nim and the features Shadow Dancer , The King and one third of the Red Riding trilogy.