Needed more about music and too much like 'Ray'!

Rating: 8/10 (15 April 2006)

I enjoyed watching the film, but wished for more depth in the story, and it also was deja vu to 'Ray' in seeing Cash plagued by guilt and the memory of a sibling's early death, which drove him to the brink of self-destruction with drugs prolific among tour members. Is this just the prototypical legendary musician's story? Did Elvis have a sibling who died, too? I think Joaquin deserved an Oscar more than Reese did, as well.
I missed depth in the development of both Cash and June Carter as musicians. Cash's talent was taken for granted and more illustration of how music formed him, was a part of his early life, was lacking. Perhaps the movie was more about the rel'ship between Carter and Cash, but to have gotten more information about June's rel'ship to her own music and voice as well would have made it a more powerful as a love story. A love story about two musicians needs to show the depth of the passion they had for their music, which, I'm sure, was the driving force of their chemistry. I know it must be naive of me to expect it, but Hollywood movies don't ever capture the depth and power of great films anymore.