Joaquin Phoenix walks in the shoes of Johnny Cash outlining his life's ups and downs

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2013)

Only a few years after the unfortunate and heartbroken passing of the American country musician, legend, and icon Johnny Cash comes this chronicle of a motion picture biography from director James Mangold. It clearly tells the tale of one the most influential 'rock and rollers' of the 20th century – from his early days as a dreamer with a guitar and an aspiring singer-songwriter, through the highlighted peaks of his career while performing with such contemporary super stars; Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, June Carter, and Roy Orbison, to the latter more darker chapters in his life filled with and dominated by alcohol, drugs, and relationship turmoils.
Starting with the cast of the film, the actors entitled with the lead roles of Johnny Cash and his long-term on/off love-affair June Carter, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, don't just act the persons in question, they truly live them (on screen). All the liveliness, emotional turbulence, and extreme energy coming from the duo makes the portrayals that much more reliable and trustworthy to anyone, who have the least amount of intelligence on their real-life counterparts doings and performance in showbiz as well as the private sphere. Phoenix plays his notes to perfection when it comes to showing off the right amounts of all the darkness, hurt, and sorrow, which all undoubtedly were embodied in the late Mr. Cash. In fact it seems like he draws on his own personal experiences in order to fulfill the role and do justice to the man of this significant magnitude. Even on the musical side of things, everything is executed to perfection. Instead of putting in any and many a major Cash single here and there, Phoenix went out of his way to record the tunes himself, learn how to play the guitar, and ultimately become the American folk phenomena in every sense of the word.
The story of this one very special man's life and his struggling through difficult times of despair clouded by smaller segments of personal joy and happiness, and widespread fame and fortune serves not only to entertain, nor solely to depict all the events already more or less publicly known.. No, it tries to piece together and decode the complexity of Cash's mindset, star struck paths, and deeply involving personal tortures, which at first glance could be believed to be unique to the great man, the living legend – but after closer inspections many of us ordinary people will acknowledge and be able to relate to have had such same kind of psychological stress in our time on earth. (most not within the same scope as our idol) Of course if you're after nothing more, than what meets the eye, this flick also delivers a just tribute to a legend now gone, with twists of what made him still human, flawed, relatable, and so much more closer to one self, than what modern mass Medias oftentimes give the impression of.
All in all with demanding presence and staggering performance from the acting crew, truthful to source material, and afterthought-imbued scene after self-reflecting scene after near tear-weepingly scene, I hereby conclude, that this great Hollywood production sets the standard for the year, and welcomes anybody to enjoy the show, whether they're looking to be enlightened, charmed, or dragged far within the brights and the darks of the personification of the multitude of aspects contained in the human psyche – It truly walks the finest line!