Phoenix Walks the Line into Film History.

Rating: 10/10 (14 April 2007)

James Mangold's 2005 film about the early career of Johnny Cash and his enduring courtship of June Carter is a thoroughly entertaining, wholly involving film that bridges a rare gap in being both an introduction to a life lived and a real cinematic joy--a pleasure even on multiple viewings.
Clearly a labor of love and effort, Walk the Line was in production for roughly ten years before it was filmed, made by people who sought to tell an accurate story without ever losing respect for their subject.
Director James Mangold deserves a lot of credit for taking a tried and tired genre -the biopic- and creating a two hour plus film that never feels too long, too slow, or exploitive in any way. The musical sequences in particular, are fantastic. They are spaced out enough, and electrifying enough that whenever they start, you don't want them to end. Shot on stage behind or next to the actors as opposed to filmed from the audience's point of view, the numbers performed create a truly intimate and breathlessly exciting experience. When Joaquin Phoenix turns in profile and the camera swallows the spotlight's glare that has been illuminating him ---it raises the film above any preceding musical or biopic standard.
An immeasurable attribute to these sequences is that Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon (as June Carter) sang and played their instruments themselves. Both are impressive, but it is knowing that the voices are actually coming from the performers themselves, that makes the movie feel like a more impressive overall accomplishment.
Even with all of the other merits of Walk the Line, the movie would have certainly failed unless the right person was cast as the lead. Joaquin Phoenix is not only amazing in his singing and guitar playing (the actor lowered his voice several octaves to sing in Cash's key and learned guitar from scratch, playing in Cash's unique style), but the quality of his acting can simply not be overstated. While many rightfully remark on his musical accomplishments (His version of 'I Walk the Line' was recorded in all five keys, in one take--the pros don't even do that) his performance is an exquisite exercise in acting becoming art right before our eyes.
There is an acting adage: "If you can say it here (eyes) you don't need to say it here (mouth)." But few actors have ever really accomplished this. They go through the motions, saying lines and moving facial muscles. What is remarkable about Phoenix's performance is that when you watch his eyes, everything is reflected--from within. When June asks about his deceased brother in the diner, you see the flash of pain across them. When his first wife utters that dreadful phrase, "that's my new rule" you feel the chill of contempt. And when he pleads for June to marry him for the last time, you understand his need for her. You never just see his love, his pain, his fear, his dependence--you feel it. It is utterly and deeply convincing and smacks of genuine artistic genius. Perhaps it stems from his "becoming" his characters, in that it never feels fake because it never is fake. He is Johnny Cash in Walk the Line and it is as true a portrait as has ever been committed to film.
Witherspoon won an Oscar for what I believe, will be in a few years, widely seen as a vastly overrated performance. She is certainly not a bad singer, though she sounds nothing like the woman she is portraying. But that is okay, few could come close to Carter's voice. The problem, the heart of the mediocrity, lies in her acting. It certainly comes as no surprise that she is spunky, cute, perky, and sassy--she always is, it seems her trademark. But she never transcends, she never ceases to be visibly acting. She seems completely conscious of her performance and as a result, so are we. When she catches 'the boys' drunk one morning and reprimands them, she overworks her face; she is trying too hard. As a result we never see a real person living, we see an actress trying to act. Through the quality of the writing and the fact that she is playing a warm, engaging woman, she didn't have to do much to be likable, certainly. But her performance feels all surface, and in her eyes--it's Reese Witherspoon. Her Oscar win would seem undeserved, but when you know how they are decided and how people win, it comes as no surprise.
The highest praise I can think to offer Walk the Line is to admit that I knew very little about Johnny Cash, and now I own some of his music and one of his books. It did more than entertain--it made me care. Phoenix's performance has been called effortless, maybe this is why some viewers seemed to miss the immense acting achievement it truly was. For it takes much more skill to appear effortless than to be labored under the weight of the role. He actually managed to make slipping into the mind of Johnny Cash look effortless.
Really, that may be what I remember most about this film. But as a biopic, it feels like a fitting portrait of the Man in Black. Though Cash fans already have the memory, the mental picture of the legend, Walk the Line shows us how he became one.