Not your average biopic

Rating: 9/10 (27 March 2006)

I had no expectations for this movie; I hadn't seen the ads or heard the buzz. I wanted to go to the movies, had the choice between Pink Panther and Walk The Line, and having seen the Pink Panther ads, I picked this one. I went in expecting another biopic: OK to watch once, not remarkable in any way, just a quick fast-forward through the biggest moments of Johnny Cash's career. I was wrong.
The focus on Johnny and June is what makes this movie so compelling. It serves as a filter: every detail about Johnny's career doesn't have be shown, we don't have to follow his life until he dies, and so forth. Instead, we can focus on the topic of Johnny and June, and the movie has a story with a structure and a happy ending. It also serves to make this movie more intimate than most biopics: we see Johnny's personal life, not only in short clips, but as a continuing theme throughout. It makes him more human. Stellar performances from both lead actors, particularly Reese Witherspoon, who portrays June's compelling personality very well. The chemistry between the two lead actors is great.
The childhood scenes also worked. In most biopics, these are very short and seem like gratuitous foreshadowing of the star's later career (see the otherwise brilliant Man on the Moon, for example). Here that was avoided by focusing on the brother's tragic death. That and the father's attitude served to explain Cash's problems later in life, and they weren't overdone. The death was touching, but not too dramatized; it seemed fairly realistic. We got to see just enough of Jack and the family dynamics to understand how devastating his death would be for the others.
The only thing I wanted to see more of was the courtship between Johnny and Viv; there never seemed to be any chemistry between them, as all we saw were their marital problems. It would have been nice to know why Johnny fell in love with her and what made them get married. It would have humanized Viv a bit; as it is, she comes off as a rather demanding woman who doesn't understand Johnny's devotion to music. I'm not saying she had no reason to complain, but this aspect was overdone in my opinion.
The music scenes worked well to set the tone and serve as transitions throughout the movie. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon shine on stage and their chemistry is especially good in these scenes.
All in all, this is one of the best biopics I've ever seen. Highly recommended.