Really engaging and enjoyable biopic

Rating: Null/10 (22 June 2008)

Growing up Johnny Cash's ambition was to make it onto the radio with his band but as an adult the reality is different. His wife and family are stuck in poor housing and he is frankly terrible at his door-to-door sales job. Unable to turn down his wife's wish to move towns and for him to take a job her father has offered, Cash turns to a local recording studio in desperation. The band's audition is unimpressive and Cash's delivery uninspiring but, giving them one last chance, the studio manager lets them do another song  which they deliver with much more passion and interest than their weak spiritual material. With a record under his belt Cash begins touring with many other rising rock and country stars as he begins a successful but storming personal and professional life.
Without a great love for country music or for that matter biopics, Walk The Line took me some time to get round to seeing but when I did I was glad that I had because it is just simple a good film that rises above the genre. The film starts with formative moments from Cash's childhood and very quickly jumps through to adulthood, marriage and a dead-end job with no future or money. From here we know where the story is heading  even if some of the viewers may not know the specifics as they apply to Johnny Cash. So we have the career rise of Cash matched with his personal fall  much of his own making in regards women, drink and drugs. However this content is presented in a solid and engaging way because we care a lot about the characters and what is happening to them.
Style-wise Mangold is relentlessly sturdy but never dull in his portrayal of the characters and he does well with the most important part  his actors. I do recall some questions being asked of the casting and for my money anytime Reese Witherspoon is cast I do ask questions myself. However the cast are roundly impressive and make their characters convincing and engaging. Phoenix is really good and he has great chemistry with Witherspoon, who is also excellent throughout. Robert Patrick was one of the few other faces I recognised and it made me realise that, for a "big" film, there are hardly any established stars here and yet this never even occurred to me till after I finished watching the film. In terms of the musical numbers I'm not sure who was really singing and who wasn't but they are all really good and well filmed to be engaging and exciting.
Walk the Line is a really good biopic and I know this because it engaged me as someone with little interest in Cash or his music. In regards narrative it ticks all the boxes that you know it will but yet still manages to make it interesting and never once was I thinking "heard it all before". Of course it also helps that both Phoenix and Witherspoon deliver really effective performances to draw the viewer into the characters from the start and throughout.