good acting in a Hollywood film

Rating: 8/10 (13 May 2006)

Some viewers have knocked this film because it fails to provide an interesting plot; some have knocked it for phoenix's acting.
As a former professional actor I can tell you that phoenix and Witherspoon were inspiring and sometimes brilliant. In fact, the ensemble of cash's father, cash's first wife Vivian, and cash's suffering mother was top notch. However, the film was standard Hollywood product with the all important "narrative arc".
-- By the way...when I was a kid in the fifties I heard jerry lee Lewis' music, I flipped. Nothing could catapult people onto the dance floor like a lewis tune with its pumping and jumping piano. Elvis may have been the KING, but Jerry Lee went all the way; his music penetrated into that primal area of Dionysian ecstasy.