BioDreck

Rating: 1/10 (31 January 2006)

This is a genuinely dreadful film, overwrought, turgid and shot entirely in close-up, like some tarted-up TV Lifetime biopic. The performances range from the bizarre (Johnny's dad) to the overly moist (the leads). Except for the Folsom scenes that bookend the film, and the scene that has Sam Phillips explaining to Johnny what makes a hit record, the movie rings false. Worse, it makes being Johnny Cash look like, well, no fun at all. It staggers from tragedy to tragedy, pausing on occasion to wipe its nose or trot out another cardboard Legends of Rock cutout (Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis). Why has this mostly played out, waxworks genre suddenly become so fashionable? Am I the only one who experiences a genuine sense of disconnect seeing someone play Katherine Hepburn play Alice Adams? Performances become impersonations, at a time when the David Steinbergs and the Frank Gorshins (RIP) have long since vanished from the scene. Playing a Truman Capote, a Ray Charles or a Johnny Cash, at a time when most of us have a fairly recent, living memory of these celebrities requires a suspension of disbelief that I, frankly, don't find, for the most part, to be worth the candle. We await reassessments of THE GREAT CARUSO or NIGHT AND DAY (sorry- forgot the recent DE-LOVELY). Better still, a reworking, so we can see Sylvester Stallone playing Mario Lanza playing Caruso playing Rigoletto!