Met My Expectations

Rating: 6/10 (17 April 2006)

What you see in the trailer is what you get in the movie: a story you've seen, read, or heard hundreds of times before. A celebrity overcomes adversity, can't handle success, nearly destroys his life through substance abuse, and finds redemption in the end.
The hook in that tired old story that this movie offers is Johnny Cash's unique musical and vocal style. On that front, director James Mangold ("Kate and Leopold") makes a mistake by having Joaquin Phoenix do his own singing. A big part of Cash's appeal stems from his amazing deep bass voice. Not one male singer in 1,000 has the low notes Cash had, and -- surprise, surprise -- Phoenix isn't that one. It would have been so easy to find a good Cash imitator to dub the songs, but because they let Phoenix do the singing, the audience is left wondering how this guy ever sold a single record, let alone millions. The big audition scene is simply an embarrassment; there is no way any record producer in the world would have touched Cash with a ten-foot pole if he'd sung "Folsom Prison Blues" with the mediocre sound Phoenix produces.
(Reese Witherspoon, on the other hand, pulls off her musical numbers with a nice voice and real country music style.)
Another shortcoming of Walk the Line -- and here the movie's trailer is misleading -- is the lack of a credible love story. There's very little romantic chemistry between Phoenix's Cash and Witherspoon's June Carter, but that's the fault of the script rather than the actors. Cash is such a worthless human being through most of the movie that it's impossible for Carter to see anything in him. When she tells a drugged-out Cash that he's a good person, our reaction can only be "He is?" In the bizarre marriage proposal scene at the end, she agrees to marry him not out of love, but apparently out of embarrassment.
Even with those negatives, the movie is slickly made, features some fine performances by the lead and supporting actors, and has several good concert scenes. If you're looking for something unique or thought-provoking, skip it. But if you're in the mood for a dramatized E! True Hollywood Story, this one fits the bill.