A Powerful, Emotionally Uplifting Film

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 2006)

Like a number of other biopics, "Walk the Line" follows a familiar narrative pattern, the story of a man's fight against his inner demons. Recent examples include "A Beautiful Mind" and, to some extent, "The Aviator" (although Scorsese's film is a complex one and deals with much more than its subject's psychological problems). In this film, Johnny Cash's demons take the form of drug and alcohol abuse, although it is clear that the root of his problems is a lack of love.
In the early scenes, we see Cash's childhood as the son of an impoverished Arkansas cotton-farmer, the death of his beloved older brother Jack in a childhood accident, his military service in Germany, his marriage to his sweetheart Viv, and his attempts to earn a living after leaving the forces, before he finally finds success as a musician in the mid fifties. Success, however, came more easily to him than did happiness. Cash's parents, as depicted here, are cold and unloving. In particular his father Ray is portrayed as a sour, morose man, permanently embittered by the loss of his elder son and with an ill-defined grudge against his younger one, for whom he never has a good word to say, even after Johnny has achieved success. Indeed, his son's success seems to make Ray even more bitter. As for his first wife Viv, she comes across in Ginnifer Goodwin's portrayal as not so much an unsympathetic character as a deeply conventional one, the sort of woman who would have been much happier as the wife of an unsuccessful salesman (which Cash briefly was during the early days of their marriage) than of a successful rock star.
The turning-point comes when Cash meets the woman who will become the great love of his life, the country singer June Carter, with whom he forms a highly successful double-act. At first, however, this relationship remains purely platonic. June is a divorcée, emotionally scarred by the failure of her marriage, and she has moral scruples about getting romantically involved with a married man. They part, and June marries another man. Even when June re-enters his life several years later, after the breakdown of her second marriage and when Cash's marriage to Viv is over in all but name, they only have a brief sexual relationship because she is too worried by his drug habit to be able to commit herself emotionally to him. With the help of June and her parents, however, Cash is able to overcome his addictions, and they finally marry after he proposes to her on stage in the middle of a concert. (This was, apparently, a true incident). Just as a lack of love caused Cash's emotional problems in the first place, he is able to overcome them with the aid of the love of a good woman. (The love of God may also have had something to do with it; the film emphasises the part played in Cash's rehabilitation by the rediscovery of his Christian faith).
I am not particularly knowledgeable about Cash's music, but from what I have heard it seems clear that its main characteristics were his deep, growling voice and a powerful, heartfelt emotional sincerity. (This is brought out in the audition scene where, after Cash and his band have signally failed to impress record company executive Sam Phillips with some tired, second-hand Gospel music, he gets a second chance to show what he can do and produces a powerful rendition of "Folsom Prison Blues"). These are not characteristics that would be easy to counterfeit, so I was both surprised and impressed to learn that Joaquin Phoenix did all his own singing for the film. (My wife, who is a much greater Johnny Cash expert than I am, was even more impressed). Phoenix's acting in this film was just as powerful as his singing; particularly fine was the way he brought out the disastrous effect that Cash's addiction had on his talent. In one scene we see Cash trashing his room and tearing a washbasin off the wall; in another, we see his disastrous attempt at performing while under the influence of drugs.
I was equally impressed by Reese Witherspoon's performance as June, especially as I had always tended to dismiss her as a lightweight actress, a perky little blonde girl with a boy's name and a big chin. Now legally brunette, Reese shows here that there is a lot more to her than her "Legally Blonde" airhead persona. June Carter, as portrayed here, comes across as a woman who, despite putting on a similarly dizzy persona as part of her stage act, was actually sensible, practical and caring. (Reese also did all her own singing). The Oscar nominations for the two leading performers are both well-deserved. Of the other performances, those that stood out were Robert Patrick as the bitter, censorious Ray and Dallas Roberts as Phillips.
There is plenty of sentiment in "Walk the Line", but it does not drift into sentimentality in the way that some recent films have done. I found it a powerful, emotionally uplifting experience. As I said, I do not know much about Cash's music, but you do not need to in order to appreciate this film, any more than you need to understand John Forbes Nash's mathematical theories in order to enjoy "A Beautiful Mind". 8/10