Phoenix, Witherspoon nail Cash biopic

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2005)

Like last year's Academy Award-winning "Ray," the newest biopic of the Holiday season, "Walk The Line," follows the same formula in dealing with the highlights of the career of Johnny Cash, whose deep aching dulcatones and gritty songwriting helped open whole new inroads in country/gospel music.
And much like Ray Charles, Cash crossed all genres from blues, soul, western, pop, alternative and Christian. Knowing all of that, it was time to reward the Man In Black with his own major motion picture. Getting the plumb role of the title character (which was, supposedly okayed by the Man himself before his passing last year), was an actor who grew up on screen  Joaquin Phoenix.
Few may remember he played the rejected little kid (Gary) in "Parenthood," earned an Oscar nomination (Best Supporting Actor) in "Gladiator," and outshone John Travolta in 2004's "Ladder 49." Not only does he resemble Cash, in often eerie ways, but he also does his own singing (unlike Jamie Foxx's Ray Charles), which, many times is pretty much dead-on accurate.
And like that Taylor Hackford film, this vehicle (directed by James Mangold ("Identity," "Girl  Interrupted"), follows the same paths to tell the rags-to-riches-to-rags-back-to-riches tale of a late 20th century pop icon. It worked well for these two films, but - hopefully - it will not become a modern biopic mainstay.
The movie's beginning, however, is a masterpiece.
We are introduced to the outside of a gray, depressing prison  the camera giving us quick takes of the walls, the barbed wire, the stoic guards  all to the background of a pounding beat and stomping feet. As we move closer to the ruckus, we see scurrying screws running towards the disturbance and the din grows louder and louder.
Soon we see what all of the commotion is about. Hundreds of blue jumper-clad inmates are pounding their feet and clapping to the rhythm of a three-piece band plunking a funky country riff  over and over again  waiting for the lead singer to appear.
Meanwhile, backstage, a tentative Cash waits nervously. He then flashes back to a backwoods Arkansas cotton farm in 1944, where he and his brother, Jack, lie awake at night talking about the Bible and songs from their mother's hymn book - Johnny, also known as JR - is the artistic one. Tragedy follows, and soon Cash is a young man, heading for Air Force service in Germany. There, he writes his first song, "Folsom Prison Blues."
Now living in Memphis and married to perky Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin, "Mona Lisa Smile"), he tries door-to-door selling, but the music runs hot in his veins, so he and a makeshift band - Dan John Miller and Larry Bagby - approaches Sun Records producer Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts), asking for an audition. After failing to impress with a slow Gospel number, Cash perks the jaded Phillips' ear with "Folsom."
They begin to cut records, tour with the likes of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis and begin climbing the charts with such classics as "Cry, Cry, Cry," "I Walk The Line," "Don't Take Your Guns To Town," and "Tennessee Flat-Top Box," among others. These were tunes - in their day - that knocked conventional pop and country music on its ear, especially "I Walk The Line," which Bob Dylan described as "profound, deep, rich, awesome and mysterious."
Cash becomes hugely successful, but, in doing so (as any biography of a popular musician will entail) he suffers some severe personal setbacks. Introduced to drugs in the 1950's, it was a habit he would spend the next decade trying to conquer. Stronger still, though, was his obsession with country queen June Carter (wonderfully played by Reese Witherspoon), whom he pursued endlessly during that same dark period.
Later, after a down period - personally and artistically - Cash comes back with the famous live concert LP at Folsom Prison, as well as numerous other albums and creative endeavors. He has recorded with a variety of well-known current performers, and his translation of the Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" is a masterstroke. Noticeably missing, though, is the singer's biggest hit, the Shel Silverstein novelty smash, "A Boy Named Sue," which Cash came to dislike with a passion.
A bit slow in some spots (though the film barely shows its 137 minute running time), the picture is nonetheless a triumph of modern biographical film-making, showing the glamor, but exposing the warts, as well (the drug/rehab scenes are much better here than in "Ray").
For his part, Phoenix nails the character in the same way Foxx did, or Phillip Seymour Hoffman does in "Capote." At times, you almost believe he IS Johnny Cash, and, unless I'm off my mark, he should get a Best Actor nod for his marvelous performance. Much lower key, but no less effective is Witherspoon. Known for playing gorgeous goof balls ("Legally Blonde," among others), she shines as the proud, virtuous, stubborn, yet gently funny Carter, holding the irresistible Cash at bay for 10 years, but standing up to drug pushers and basically saving his life.
Their's was a match - if not made in heaven - then certainly tempered by the fires of Hell and sustained through a mutual love of God and music. In a rather weak year for women in leading roles, I would not be surprised to see her get a nomination, as well.