Man on Wire: 7/10

His name was small. His ambitions limited only by the height of the building he set his sights upon.

Man on Wire tells the story of one Philippe Petit, a self-taught high-wire walker enchanted by the seemingly insane dream of shimmying between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre on a piece of metal wire.

The man himself - together with his partners in crime (and he was arrested for the dare-devil act) - explains on film, in great detail, how he conceived the hair-brained scheme (he saw a magazine picture in a dental surgery); how it almost never happened; and how he coped with his new-found fame.

But nothing, neither the emotions of his friends, the archive footage of Petit practising in his back yard, nor the absence of an explanation as to how he financed his escapades, compares with the stills that catch Petit in the act.

I got vertigo just looking at them. My jaw dropped, mesmerised at the incredible audacity of the man. My girlfriend was a little frustrated by the detailed explanations of the logistics involved in the operation. And I did nod off a couple of times, mainly because of exhaustion.

But this documentary is as thrilling and as raw as any I've seen. "You have to live your life on a tightrope," concludes Petit. If you don't push yourself to the limit, you're wasting your time. A fine philosophy indeed, even if it does come from an obviously arrogant, and selfish, Frenchman. You can't help but like him.