Formulaic biopic with excellent performances

Rating: 6/10 (23 October 2006)

This is one of the most formulaic and predicable biopics that I've seen. Almost every scene looks like it was written to present a significant event in the characters lives. As such it successfully tells a story but sacrifices any real character development or depth. Each piece fits together so neatly that I was left asking "What happened to the real people?". Of course this is hard to avoid when you have to tell a person's life story in 2 hours. That's why the best biopics avoid this trap and instead focus on a particular episode or a small chunk of time (i.e. Pollock). Nevertheless, the performances by the 2 leads are outstanding. Reese Witherspoon was either born to play the role of June Carter or else she has been hiding a lot of talent under the one-dimensional roles she has mostly played in the past. Joaquin Phoenix is very good as the Man in Black- especially since Johnny Cash was such a unique presence. Overall, even with low expectations for this film, I found myself disappointed. Come on Hollywood, Johnny Cash deserves better than this!