By Megan Bianco

After a year off in hiatus to focus on his interactive media company hitRECord and enjoy his new marriage, indie star Joseph Gordon-Levitt is back in the movie making game this season with “The Walk,” “The Night Before” and “Snowden.” Two biopics and slapstick comedy should make for a successful return, but the Snowden feature has recently been pushed back to spring and “The Walk” underperformed at the box office last weekend, even by limited release standards. Why the sudden turn of events and does it affect JGL?

Taking place from 1973 to 1975, Philippe Petit (Gordon-Levitt) is a juggler, bicyclist and high-wire artist who makes a living out of odd, but amusing acts for people on the streets of Paris. His dream is to walk on the highest high-wire possible, and he finds a way to make it come true when his girlfriend Annie (Charlotte Le Bon) reminds him that the two highest towers in the world will be built in Manhattan. Madly determined, Philippe and Annie dodge the authorities and slowly over time compose a crew to help him accomplish his wild goal.

James Badge Dale, Ben Schwartz, Clément Sibony and César Domboy co-star as members of Philippe’s crew. “The Walk” is adapted from Petit’s own 2002 memoir “To Reach the Clouds,” later becoming a highly acclaimed documentary, “Man on Wire,” by James Marsh in 2008. What makes the new scripted film different from the previous movie is the fact that it was filmed and released in 3D-IMAX.

Director Robert Zemeckis has had his share of classic films with impressive visuals like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988) and “Forrest Gump” (1994), and makes excellent use of extraordinary effects in “The Walk,” fortunately featuring few jump scares in 3D. Even more impressive is how natural the computer-generated background of 1974 NYC looks around the actors. The film’s weak points lie in a few sappy moments near the end with some corny dialogue, which seem to appear in a handful of Zemeckis pictures.

Gordon-Levitt makes a decent effort at portraying a native Frenchman by fortunately already being fluent in French and managing to sound pretty similar to the real Petit’s voice. Although we know the actor isn’t really hundreds of feet off the ground we see and feel the determination and passion in his movements. Le Bon is adorable as Petit’s lover and has the presence of a French Winona Ryder. What probably stopped people from walking into IMAX theaters for the film was the release of “The Martian” on the same weekend. “Man on Wire” fans probably aren’t going to see anything new, but to those who are fans of Zemeckis, Gordon-Levitt and the 3D effects will likely enjoy “The Walk.”

Megan Bianco is a Southern California-based movie reviewer and content writer with a degree from California State University Northridge.