Almost there ...

Rating: 7/10 (10 January 2007)

I found Walk The Line to be a good, enjoyable movie; Witherspoon and Phoenix both are excellent, and it strikes me that any time Reese wants to switch careers to become a C&W singer she's probably got a legitimate shot at being a star. When was the last time you saw a Hollywood movie with the principals doing their own singing *and* it all worked out? (Moulin Rouge me no Moulin Rouge, Obi-Wan was strictly amateur hour)
That being the case, I've a few nits to pick. With a couple exceptions, the first half hour of the movie left me wondering how far I'd get before flipping the DVD off. Phoenix's voice in the early going was dull, flat, and nearly lifeless (although I wonder whether it was just that his timbre and range were far better suited to Cash's later music?), and you had no sense that this would become a legendary singer. The early exposition was terribly rushed, going from vignette to vignette in a choppy, barely-explored fashion. Beyond that and throughout, it struck me that scenes with other stars (such as the ones with Waylon Jennings and Elvis) were thrown in more for their namedropping than any dramatic purpose. It kept the movie from being truly great, IMHO.
7/10.