Man on Wire

***Man on Wire*** is a British-American biographical documentary film directed by James Marsh, based on Philippe Petit's 2002 book *To Reach the Clouds*. It was produced by BBC Storyville, Discovery Films, and Wall to Wall, and released in 2008.

## Synopsis

The film chronicles Philippe Petit's 1974 high wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center. It is crafted like a heist film, presenting rare footage of the preparations for the event and still photographs of the walk, alongside reenactments (with Paul McGill as the young Petit) and present-day interviews with the participants, including Barry Greenhouse, an insurance executive who served as the inside man.

## Release

*Man on Wire* was first released on January 22, 2008 at the Sundance Film Festival, where it competed in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. This was followed by a theatrical release on August 1, 2008 in the United Kingdom and August 29, 2008 in the United States.

### Box office

For its U.S. theatrical release, the film earned $51,392 in its first weekend, ranking number 37 at the domestic box office. By the end of its run on March 5, 2009, the film grossed $2,962,242 in the United States and Canada and $2,296,327 international for a worldwide total of $5,258,569.

### Critical reception

*Man on Wire* received critical acclaim. It has an approval rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 158 reviews, with a weighted average of 8.39/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "James Marsh's doc about artist Philippe Petit's artful caper brings you every ounce of suspense that can be wrung from a man on a (suspended) wire." On Metacritic, *Man on Wire* has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

### Top ten lists

The film has appeared in several American lists for the top ten films of 2008. *Movie City News* shows that that film has appeared in 76 out of 286 different American critics' top ten lists, the joint 7th "most mentions" on a top ten list of the films released in 2008.

* 2nd - Kyle Smith, *New York Post*
* 3rd - Tasha Robinson, *The A.V. Club*
* 3rd - Ty Burr, *The Boston Globe*
* 4th - A.O. Scott, *The New York Times*
* 4th - Liam Lacey, *The Globe and Mail*
* 4th - Michael Rechtshaffen, *The Hollywood Reporter*
* 5th - Ann Hornaday, *The Washington Post*
* 5th - David Ansen, *Newsweek*
* 5th - Marc Mohan, *The Oregonian*
* 5th - Ben Mankiewicz, *At the Movies*
* 6th - Frank Scheck, *The Hollywood Reporter*
* 6th - Marc Savlov, *The Austin Chronicle*
* 6th - Scott Tobias, *The A.V. Club*
* 7th - Josh Rosenblatt, *The Austin Chronicles*
* 7th - Kirk Honeycutt, *The Hollywood Reporter*
* 7th - Michael Philips, *Chicago Tribune*
* 8th - Andrew O'Hehir, *Salon*
* 8th - Peter Hartlaub, *San Francisco Chronicle*
* 9th - Lisa Schwarzbaum, *Entertainment Weekly*
* 10th - Lawrence Toppman, *The Charlotte Observer*
* 10th - Peter Travers, *Rolling Stone*
* Top 10 (unordered) - Carrie Rickey, *The Philadelphia Inquirer*
* Top 10 (unordered) - Dana Stevens, *Slate*
* Top 10 (unordered) - Joe Morgenstern, *The Wall Street Journal*
* Top 10 (unordered) - Peter Rainer, *The Christian Science Monitor*
* Top 10 (unordered) - Robert Mondello, *NPR*