An entertaining yet often formulaic biopic.

Rating: 7/10 (10 November 2006)

Although musicals are not my speciality, 'Walk the Line' had a certain allure to it that made me want to witness the rise of one of the worlds most all-time well known musicians through the medium of film. What was odd that it turned out the film didn't really play like a musical and managed to end up like a romance/fairytale story. But this wasn't a bad thing.
I really liked the use of diegetic sound in the film. That means the sounds and, more importantly; the music, were actually in the film resulting in the fact we could hear them just as well as the characters could and this played an important part in witnessing Johnny Cash's journey. The music on the radio which plays a big part later on, (or more importantly, the person singing it), the rough sound of the bands making their own records in a store followed by the shutting of a door in Cash's face giving off a sense that he can hear his music on the record but it's just a little out of reach and hard to get to and the way he rehearses his songs whilst in the army are all good, early examples of Cash and his tendency to give music and sound a priority in life.
What also adds to this is the early changes of era. We go through a couple of decades in about five year bursts and each time, the setting and the music changes somewhat. This gives a good feeling of travel and suggests Cash's character is on quite a journey.
Along with the music, the other thing I mentioned was the romance element. Because this is a life story, a marriage or a relationship is bound to come along at some point and the film deals with these relationships (in fact, with most character's relationships with each other) in an entertaining way. Each relation is pushed to an absolute limit. Cash's constant lust to get married to June and the way he shows her up a few times is pretty awkward viewing and if you don't know how the story ends, it's fascinating watching them all react in the slow, awkward way in which they do. What's also good is that well into the marriage, there are certain cliff-hangers we are left on, leaving doubt as to whether each character will love one another anymore.
It's also interesting how the actual musical performances advance the plot. The relationships growing on screen and Cash's problems are two of the things highlighted during these scenes and they work well.
Although these good things inject the film after every twenty minutes or so, they're not enough to stop some glaring items that bring the film down. These occur every now and again but the most obvious is when our hero, Johnny, settles down with married life which is, coincidentally, when the film looses a lot of energy as it stops for a breather. There's also a bit of an obvious 'protagonist's failure' when he seems to be loosing his battle with his drink and drug problem. It seemed like a bit of an obvious 'lowest point' before he miraculously came back for his last performances, especially at the jail.
Although sometimes frustrating and if you can look past the fact Reece Witherspoon's character doesn't seem to age in the film, there's a good chance you'll like this interesting and sometimes entertaining biopic.