Reimagining Dahl’s beloved story for a modern audience, Zemeckis’s visually innovative “The Witches” tells the darkly humorous and heartwarming tale of a young orphaned boy (Bruno) who, in late 1967, goes to live with his loving Grandma (Spencer) in the rural Alabama town of Demopolis. The boy and his grandmother come across some deceptively glamorous but thoroughly diabolical witches, so Grandma wisely whisks our young hero away to an opulent seaside resort. Regrettably, they arrive at precisely the same time that the world’s Grand High Witch (Hathaway) has gathered her fellow cronies from around the globe—undercover—to carry out her nefarious plans.

The screenplay is by Guillermo Del Toro and Robert Zemeckis & Kenya Barris (upcoming “Shaft”), based on the book by Roald Dahl. Zemeckis also produces, alongside Jack Rapke, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron and Luke Kelly. Serving as executive producers on the film are Michael Siegel, Gideon Simeloff, Marianne Jenkins and Jackie Levine.

Zemeckis’s behind-the-scenes team includes a roster of his frequent collaborators, including Oscar-nominated director of photography Don Burgess (“Forrest Gump”), production designer Gary Freeman, Editor Jeremiah O’Driscoll, and Oscar-nominated costume designer Joanna Johnston (“Allied,” “Lincoln”).

An Image Movers Production, a Necropia/Experanto Filmoj Production, “The Witches” is filming at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in the UK. It is currently scheduled for theatrical release on October 15, 2020 in Australia and New Zealand and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
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Enter Robert Zemeckis; director of numerous landmark films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Back To The Future, Forest Gump and Contact but has failed to match the quality and innovation of those films for nigh on twenty years. His last film, Flight, was a reasonable attempt at recapturing prior successes but it was no Contact. The time is right – nay overdue – for a return to form.

The Walk isn’t quite that film. But it is a very good film. It is imbued with the same emotional fibre of Man On Wire; when Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit takes that step out on to the wire, we experience that same heart-stopping moment we felt in the documentary. This feeling is compounded by Zemeckis’ use of modern digital 3D technology – so rarely has 3D cinema been applied as effectively and appropriately.

The story that Zemeckis presents is mostly true. Admirably true. It’s truer than most ‘true stories’ we see in the cinema these days but given our familiarity with Man On Wire there’s much less scope for Zemeckis to part with actual events. He does partake in some artistic licence, however. Some of it is for dramatic effect; some of it is metaphorical; and some of it is – less admirably – to cover some of Petit’s character flaws. But it is, for the most part, on the money.

If there’s a criticism to be had of The Walk, it is that it follows almost the exact same beats as the documentary. As a result, Zemeckis’ film doesn’t feel hugely different from Man On Wire, which begs the question: why make it in this manner?

Like the documentary, The Walk presents a strict chronology of the events leading up to the big moment, narrated step-by-step by Petit (Gordon-Levitt). Narrations in dramatisations often feel like a lazy story-telling device and here it feels no different. That Gordon-Levitt narrates the film atop the Statue of Liberty also feels heavily contrived. A little more creativity in the film’s structure, however, would perhaps balance out the on screen drama and elevate the film above it’s, albeit excellent, documentary predecessor.

Gordon-Levitt does well, however, in his portrait of Petit. He doesn’t much look like him but he sounds like him and possesses Petit’s fanciful, arrogant, carefree indignance and childish wonder.

In some ways The Walk suffers from the success of it’s predecessor and Zemeckis seems to be attempting to duplicate that success to the point of not producing anything uniquely his own. But regardless he is successful in duplicating Man On Wire’s appeal and his film is equally rewarding.

Stuart Jamieson
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