Phoenix and Witherspoon are Untouchable!

Rating: 9/10 (23 January 2006)

I find it very hard to find how anyone could come up with a reason to not like Walk the Line. James Mangold's biopic of American country music legend Johnny Cash is what the biography genre is all about, and certainly the credit that Cash deserves. Everything about WtL comes together with such heart and determination, that my wife and I were left in our seats saying "Wow, this is what going to the theatre is all about, what a fantastic movie!" Walk the Line starts us off with young Johnny Cash growing up on his parent's Arkansas cotton farm. Under constant fire from his father's criticism for not being as good as his brother, Johnny spends his nights listening to his radio, particularly the young country sweetheart June Carter. Johnny and his brother shared a very close bond, with his brother always helping him shrug off his father's drunken humiliations. When his brother dies after a freak accident, Johnny's drunken father naturally blames him saying, "God took the wrong son!" Having nothing left but a never-ending determination to please his father, Johnny heads off to join the service, where he will learn to play the guitar.
Years later we catch up with Johnny Cash, now portrayed with uncanny perfection by Joaquin Phoenix, as he is about to leave the service. James Mangold's transition from the young Cash to Phoenix is beautiful. There is no wasted time of promiscuous growth, as we are streamlined through Cash's first guitar, the birth of Folsom Prison Blues, to Cash's first gospel band, who Cash's wife Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin) disapproves of with no secrecy to Johnny. With his door-to-door job going nowhere, Johnny decides its time for him and his band to put out a record. As Sun Records producer Sam Phillips politely turns down the bands gospel, Cash's last hope for his dream is his solo work, Folsom Prison Blues, and Phillips loves it.
This is Joaquin's most pivotal scene. Can he make it as Cash or are we as an audience walking the line out of the theatre? He nails it. Not only does he nail it, he IS Johnny Cash. You close your eyes and you hear the razor sharp voice of Johnny Cash cut right through you and you would swear that there is no way that Joaquin Phoenix did his own vocals, which he does, and does flawlessly.
As Cash's success leads him to touring, Mangold gives a nice touch to the supporting cast as we are introduced to the young Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and June Carter, who is played to absolute perfection by Reese Witherspoon. While we don't see a lot of the others like Elvis and Lewis, their presence is a lot of fun. Mangold holds steady in keeping a good close eye on the main point of WtL, which is the ever-blossoming fight for love between Johnny and June through Cash's addiction to alcohol and pills and his failing fight to make amends with his father.
As far as Phoenix and Witherspoon go on screen, you couldn't find better chemistry in a science class. These two, pure and simple, are dynamite. The struggle of love and friendship that they portray between Johnny and June is harrowing. As Cash's marriage with his wife slowly deteriorates from his time on the road and devotion to June, June tries to keep Cash at arms length. Reese doesn't portray Carter as a home wrecker, yet she is incredibly sincere in her devotion as a friend to Johnny in his period of drug and alcohol abuse. After several denied proposals of marriage to June, Cash's plausible perseverance climaxes, which is factually correct, with a full house on stage proposal The performances given by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon are as good as you can ever hope to get in a biopic. They are both phenomenal. With both performing their own vocals, Joaquin learned how to play all of Cash's songs on guitar, while Reese learned to play the Carter's songs on the auto-harp. The dedication that these two stars put into their roles is clearly reflected in the scenes of them on stage, they are just mind-blowing. When these two look into each other's eyes while on stage you want to explode with delight, they are just that good While WtL does not demonstrate Oscar worthy direction or camera work, it is not to say they are not up to par. James Mangold knew how to tackle this film, and I agree with his approach. A simple straightforward look and such an involved story that would take care of itself. WtL is a serious contender in this years Oscar race for obvious reasons. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon are so dead on in their performances, and have set standards so high, that any actor taking on a biopic role will have great expectations to live up to. Walk the Line is a story that is so successful and so fulfilling, you wont want the closing credits to ever come. Johnny Cash and June Carter can rest assured with such a triumphant telling of their love living on