Reese Witherspoon is a revelation

Rating: 7/10 (26 November 2005)

A lot has been written about Joaquin Phoenix's performance as Johnny Cash but it is Reese Witherspoon as June Carter who gives this movie its heart and soul. Phoenix is wonderful showing Cash as he grows on stage and finds a comfort with his voice; however it is only in his duets with Witherspoon that the sparks really fly. Witherspoon lit up the screen in Legally Blonde but after such dogs as Legally Blonde 2 and Sweet Home Alabama I was unprepared for the way she could carry the emotional weight here. While Phoenix's voice was always on the edge of musicality, Witherspoon's always hit the right notes and tone. She deserves an Oscar nomination for her portrayal! Overall, Walk the Line is well crafted with a particularly pleasing inclusions of subtle scenes that make their way back into songs or later plot lines. Phoenix captures Cash's intensity on stage and his misery when apart from Carter very well though he is somewhat less effective in capturing other aspects of Cash's motivations. The core story of Cash's relationship with Carter is extremely well done. Although the film-making avoids some of the clichéd Hollywood touches that showed up in Ray, the story line is lacking in the complexity of Ray and thus yields a somewhat weaker film overall. Abstractly, I would say that the film could have benefited from some tighter editing to cut about 15 minutes from its running time, but I wouldn't want to cut one minute of Reese Witherspoon's screen time!