Thrilling

Rating: 9/10 (14 February 2006)

I can hardly be called a country music fan and that's why I was at two minds about whether I should go and see this movie or whether I shouldn't. I expected some kind of a rather cheesy musical and the usual hollywoodish plot of a singer who starts out as a lowlife, finally makes a record and becomes a celebrity but gets addicted to drugs and alcohol only to get over this troublesome period of his life in the end. And although Walk the line has all these usual ingredients and, as a biopic, resembles the recent RAY, I was positively surprised when I saw this movie. I thought that Phoenix and Witherspoon did a great job on this and I still can't believe they sang those songs by themselves. The key to the surprising success is, according to me, the atmosphere of the movie. Phoenix is Johnny Cash, Witherspoon is June Carter. From the first second of the movie I was able to forget the performances of Phoenix and Witherspoon in their earlier films (such as Legally Blonde or Signs). The best Cash song so far is HURT. So there you go.