Writing the script with newcomer Christopher Browne, director Robert Zemeckis adapted the true story from Philippe Petit’s memoir, “To Reach the Clouds.” The French tightrope walker tiptoed* across the clouds between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

    In a 2008 documentary account of Petit’s feat, “Man on Wire,” director James Marsh made no excuses for the egomaniacal* side of his subject. Zemeckis tries to get around that by depicting* Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as a cute imp* who leaves on a unicycle* when he’s kicked out of his home by his father.

    Only when the action moves to New York does the film becomes exciting. A handful of American accomplices* are brought on board, notably Barry Greenhouse (Steve Valentine), an insurance broker* with an office high up in one of the World Trade Center towers, and smart-talking electronics salesman J.P. (James Badge Dale). But this is a movie in which the characters and their dialogue remain secondary to the complicated logistics* of their illegal undertaking. It’s the focus on the specifics — research, planning, rigging, setbacks and lucky breaks — that finally completes the storytelling.

    Working with cinematographer Dariusz Wolski and a good visual effects team, the director puts us 110 stories off the ground and dares us to look down.

    The movie truly soars the minute Philippe steps out on that wire, amplifying* its awe factor as a crowd gathers on the street below to stare up in wonder. Wolski’s camera flies like a bird, traveling the distance of the towers in both directions, giving us Petit’s point of view as well as hovering* above him. The film creates a spectacle of balletic beauty at that moment.

    The choice to refer only vaguely to the twin towers’ disappearance after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, via a somber* fade in the closing shot, shows welcome restraint* in a movie whose final-act achievements make up for the shortcomings of its belabored* buildup.

    (SD-Agencies)