Great performances...okay movie

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2005)

Let me begin by stating that I am a HUGE Johnny Cash fan and was really looking forward to seeing this movie. I read Johnny's autobiography, so I had a lot of outside knowledge about him and his relationship with June Carter, which is one reason why this movie just didn't do it for me as much as I'd hoped it would. Like all Hollywood biopics, WALK THE LINE glosses over a lot of facts, plays around with chronology, and just leaves out a lot of details that fans like me would have enjoyed seeing. That's not to say that the movie is not any good...the performances by Phoenix and Witherspoon are superb, the set design and costumes were very impressive, and the music, of course, was wonderful...the true flaws lie with the screenplay and the editing. Maybe it's because I'm familiar with the story, but the film seemed a little too hurried to get through all the details of Cash's life in two hours...more time should have been devoted to Cash's outsider status in the country music world and his "man in black" persona, which in this movie seems to take a backseat to his drug addiction and recovery with the help of his true love, June. All in all, the film is played as more of a love story and less of a portrait of a legendary artist, which is what I hoping it would be. Perhaps if the film were longer and had a better director, it could have balanced the many aspects of Cash's fascinating life a little better. All in all, the film was very enjoyable, but I'd be more interested in an extended version with more music.
P.S.: I still don't understand why this movie wasn't called "Ring of Fire"...maybe the producers didn't want it to be confused with that dragon movie that came out a few years ago.