all about the acting

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2006)

You don't have to be a fan of country music or Johnny Cash to enjoy this movie. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon give the best performances of the year in a biopic that gets behind the image of its subject to portray a tortured, and often unpleasant, man. There are obvious similarities between this movie and "Ray" the life story of Ray Charles. This is a better movie though and that is due purely to the outstanding on screen relationship of Phoenix and Witherspoon. Joaquin Phoenix just about reaches that pinnacle of becoming more like Johnny Cash than Cash himself. In much the same way as Val Kilmer occupied the character of Jim Morrison in "The Doors". Reese Witherspoon gives is a feisty June Carter who's sheer energy carries the movie at moments when it may seem to flag. The depiction of Cash's struggle to make it as a singer is very real and doesn't indulge in the overnight success story so many biopics portray.
This is a thoroughly engaging movie that I will definitely be adding to my DVD collection as soon as it is released.