Outstanding biography with excellent performances

Rating: 10/10 (20 May 2008)

The year was 2005 when Walk The Line had been released nationwide in the United States and in the time of Oscar season as well. The film is a biography about the ups and downs of country singer Johnny Cash which explores the path like musicians where fame gets in their head followed by the booze, drugs and women. Walk The Line, once released, was compared immediately to 2004's musical biopic "Ray" dealing with Ray Charles and his rise to fortune and fame with moviegoers looking at similarities from pushy parents, death of a sibling, love rivalries, and the pain of the main protagonist. But somehow Walk The Line managed to get some information correct rather than feel sorry for the main characters, like in Ray where months after Mr. Charles passed away, a lot of fans of either the movie or the musician wanted to do their homework on what was real and fake where at least sixty percent of the film was just made up leaving only to care for Jamie Foxx's performance. Walk The Line surprised everyone once they were on their computers to check out whether or not what they were seeing on screen was true.
The performances of the actors shined throughout this film. Joaquin Phoenix did a kick-ass job as the man in black where even his vocals seemed to made me jump after realizing that he sang all the Johnny Cash songs in the film, even the ones that didn't make the cut for the CD soundtrack. Reese Witherspoon is hotter than a pistol as June Carter, Johnny's interest, who shows her southern roots by playing the late musician with such energy and spark that she is the heart and soul of the movie. Robert Patrick (Terminator 2) gives the shivering performance of a parent I've seen on screen as Johnny's hard-ass father who still thinks Johnny should have died and not his eldest son and also ashamed at how his singing son turned out to be with booze, drugs, and fame. Ginnifer Goodwin portrays Johnny Cash's first wife, Vivian, in which despite the fact that the real Vivian was supportive of Johnny, they turned her to be the somewhat rival in the film giving more space for the Johnny/June relationship, but shows how much of an actress she can be on screen with better roles coming to her in the future. Also look for musicians Waylon Payne (Waylon Jenning's godson) as Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Holiday as Carl Perkins, Jonathan Rice as Roy Orbison, Shooter Jennings (Waylon Jenning's son) as Waylon, and Tyler Hilton as Elvis Presley.