Excellent

Rating: 9/10 (24 February 2006)

At this point in time I'm sure you've heard all you need to know about Walk The Line and don't even need to see yet another review from an English guy with a film studies degree on the Internet to make up your mind about whether to see it or not. I'm sure you know all about how stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Whitherspoon sing all the tracks themselves, how the story builds up a stark portrayal of the Man In Black's back story and the emotional turbulence that led to the creation of such classic songs, but the simple fact of the matter is this; all the hype is richly, justly deserved.
But then Johnny Cash's life story was always perfect fodder for the biopic hungry crowd. He grew up in a poor rural area of America and blames himself for a childhood tragedy, carrying the self-loathing and rage tightly wound within the depths of his being for the rest of his life. He is at first rejected by studios who don't want to hear more gospel music and so sets out to craft his own sound, but as his success increases his first marriage deteriorates in a spiral of infidelities and drug abuse. He finds himself at death's door and on the verge of his entire life collapsing, turns things around in startling fashion tailor made for an uplifting, life affirming climax.
So far, so very Ray with an acoustic guitar and better eyesight, but then Ray was such an incredible film in the first place, it's all too easy to just sit back and get lost in the saga until you realise you've been sat in the cinema for the last two hours with the same expression on your face staring open mouthed at the screen. And you can put that down to the magnetism of the stars.
Joaquin Phoenix for starters is a revelation. He doesn't so much play Johnny Cash as wear him like a glove and commands the screen with a power that fixes your attention from the offset. Just watch the moments where he sings an impromptu version of Fulsom Prison Blues after the label agent ridicules his gospel songs, the combination of his whiskey-soaked voice and those sad, yearning eyes creating a truly dramatic turn, quite an accomplishment when all it really is is a man singing and playing guitar in a cramped recording studio. The occasional moments of awkward nervousness that impeded his role as Emperor Commodus in Gladiator are gone and in their place is a man who has ascended from a position as a movie star and can now stand toe to toe with the greatest thesps in cinema history.
But good as Phoenix is, even he is outdone by co-star Reese Whitherspoon as his love interest June Carter. Unlike Phoenix, Whitherspoon did not have the aid of her real-life counterpart for inspiration, but nevertheless she encapsulates the character so fully you can't help but wonder if the girl who made the Legally Blonde movies wasn't a different person altogether. As June, she plays the sweet, wild west gal stage persona alongside the backstage position as the confident, strong woman that tamed Johnny Cash and does so with a great deal of conviction. Phoenix is almost guaranteed the Best Actor Oscar but with a performance like this, it's hard not to see the Best Actress statue going to this movie either.
The end result is a film that is very frank in it's honesty. Cash does not get smothered in adulation, but is instead shown as a very human character behind the songs that gave him fame. With his recent passing, Walk The Line is an excellent tribute, showing us the troubled man without flinching and focusing on the truth of his life, just as his songs did when they were first crafted by a tired old man with nothing but a cigarette, a guitar and a head full of demons to draw from.