A wonderful journey

Rating: 10/10 (3 December 2011)

Congratulations to everyone involved in this production, which is a superbly made and fantastically well-acted film. Excellent acting by the whole cast is even more impressive because of the tremendous singing and musical numbers performances by the actors. Reese Witherspoon was quite rightly lauded with awards including a BAFTA, Golden Globe and an Oscar. However, Joaquin Phoenix's tour de force performance was the centrepiece and core of the film and easily on a par with Witherspoon's contribution. Surprisingly he only collected a Golden Globe for his performance.
There are also excellent supporting performances. Most notably Waylon Payne is superb in a small part as Jerry Lewis, and Robert Patrick (in his second collaboration with director James Mangold) as Cash's father Ray.
The film is runs 2 hours and a half hours (director's cut), and while not an action film is incredibly well paced. James Mangold is emerging as the 21st Century's version of veteran Hollywood director Robert Wise. Like Wise, his films are superbly well crafted, this film being no exception, with excellent production design by David Bomba and costume designer Arianne Phillips, which captures the period very well. Other highly competent technical contributions are fused with an excellent script and brilliant performances in a highly skilled but understated style by Mangold. He ensures you are totally captivated by the story and performances, and he ensures that competent camera- work and excellent editing by Michael McCusker help the story fly along but do not draw attention to themselves. Also like Wise Mangold's choices of projects have been highly eclectic, showing what a versatile director he is.
The period of Cash's life that are used to form the story inter-mesh very well and drive the narrative along briskly. Despite characters having real flaws, you are drawn to them and Phoenix and Witherspoon always keep their characters accessible and sympathetic. T Bone Burnett's choice of music in the film fits the narrative perfectly.
If you are patient you will find the experience of watching the film extremely satisfying emotionally, particularly at the climax.
Kudo's to everyone involved for creating an excellent and outstanding character piece.