good, not great film

Rating: 7/10 (8 February 2006)

At first Walk the Line felt like a great film. After thinking about it a little more, I started to feel that it a very good film flirting with, but not touching greatness. The story was a little too simplified for its source, both in spirit and and formation. I thought the way Cash's demons were simplified in the film didn't do it complete justice. Also, the more I thought about the script, the more I felt that other than Cash the characters were lacking the depth required to be a great film. I really liked the directing. Mangold is an impressive director with more range than I realized. He now has at least three distinctively unique films on his resume with Ring of Fire, Kate & Leopold, and Identity. I would definitely watch near anything he directed sight unseen. The acting was very impressive also. Phoenix is showing that (pardon the pun) he has the skills to spread his wings and fill a diversity of roles. Witherspoon made an underwritten role have more depth and power than it probably should have. The rest of the cast was talentedly engaging and provided the Phoenix the environment to shine. Ultimately, I thought the biggest flaw was the script. It seemed to turn the story of Johnny Cash into a little too much of an one character story. June Carter seemed like there should have been more depth to develop her, and in some ways Vivian Cash seemed to not be present enough in the whole storyline. Overall, it is an impressive film. I don't it entirely succeeded in its goals of show us who the man in black really was. 7/10