Man on Wire (2008): Netflixin 12/14/08

• Why I rented it: I read about it in the paper back in the summer when it came out and thought it sounded interesting, but never got a chance to go to Lexington to see it. After noticing it on several critics' year-end best-of lists, rented it the day the dvd came out.


• Verdict: 8/10. Bad things first: the non-linear story structure (flashbacks are often so subtle that they go on for several minutes before you realize they're flashbacks; characters appear in medias res, then are re-introduced later) and occasionally thick French accents make the story sometimes hard to follow.
  
  Otherwise, a beautiful, beautiful movie. Innovation, drive, performance art, and the human spirit. Once again (see Amélie), a French movie that, based on its subject manner, my cynical self should consider silly ends up opening my eyes to the simple beauty of a man on a wire.
  
  Freedom fries my patoot.