Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and June Carter (Reese Witherspoon) share a tender moment in the movie 'Walk The Line'. - CONTRIBUTED
LIFE WELL told always makes for great cinema and Walk The Line is a worthy addition to the list of bio-pics that are packed into cinema history. The movie's trailer suggests that Walk The Line is the Johnny Cash story, but it soon becomes the June Carter and Johnny Cash love story.
There are many good reasons to make movies about famous people, and the top ten of those reasons are money. Movies about music stars such as Johnny Cash are already able to tap into the existing fan base. It takes the sport of star gazing to its natural conclusion.
Walk The Line shows the 'man in black' from his early life of poverty on a cotton farm to his years of rising stardom. His path from rags to riches is a line walked by many who also snorted the fairy dust of stardom, and so in that sense feels rather familiar.
BEAUTIFUL DIRECTION
Even so, Walk The Line is beautifully directed by James Mangold, who also shares writing credits with Gil Dennis for the screenplay. So, with three Golden Globe wins now safely tucked into its belt, the film can strut toward the Oscars with extreme confidence.
The film stars Joaquin Phoenix (Johnny Cash) and Reese Witherspoon (June Cash) who work beautifully together. Witherspoon positively shimmers with a vibrant energy that leaps from the screen. She is luminescent and as her character grows, one is more drawn in by her. She is portrayed as strong and endearing.
She, therefore, makes the perfect complement to Cash's brooding, often dark troubling presence. The black seems to have gone beyond his clothes, and reflects the other troubles that boil inside. Phoenix is a very good actor and he delivers once again in this flick, even though it ought not be deemed the best of his career even if his Golden Globe win for the role might tempt some to do so.
The third star of Walk The Line is, of course, Cash's music which dominates the film from start to finish, so it really helps if one is a country music fan, because if the twang gets on your nerves you are in for a lot of it. But even then, the story would be worth watching.
LOTS OF WIT, FUN
The movie is wittily written and so often funny and at other times quite moving as it explores Cash's descent into that "burning ring of fire" that made up his inner turmoil. What the film needed, however, was a stronger support cast of characters.
The film follows much of Cash's life on the road and so it features glimpses of those he toured with, including Elvis Presley (Tyler Hilton), and Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Payne), but these are never really more than cameos and so add nothing to the film's dramatic quality.
As such, with the exception of Cash's first wife, Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin) and father Ray Cash (Robert Patrick) the other characters are barely sketched in. Nonetheless, Patrick does an excellent job and the moments of psychological struggle between father and son are some of the strongest in the film.
Walk The Line has all the elements of a good film. It has good acting, direction, story and dialogue. Yet, though the story is quite interesting, it hasn't the awe-inducing poignancy of either Ray or A Beautiful Mind, two of the best bio-pics made, at least in recent history.
