Grade: A- | Genre: Biopic/Drama/Musical Summary: Johnny Cash picked Joaquin Phoenix to play him in his biopic. Cash is looking down from heaven very pleased with his choice right about now. 'Tis the season of good movies, and it's about time after the previous famine of this year. Two biopics have released me from the doldrums of utter boredom recently. One flick that transported me was Capote, and now Walk the Line has made a believer out of me again. In both biopics the actors seemed to approach the roles from different paths, however, both movies deliver amazing, gut-wrenching performances. The major difference with Phoenix's performance was his wise decision not to attempt to speak exactly like one of America's symbols of rough and ready manhood, Johnny Cash. Phoenix knew where to "walk the line," so to speak. Hoffman became Capote, morphed into him, and that was appropriate for Capote was not worshiped like Cash. Phoenix's genius is that he captured the great man's soul, his essence, and gave it to us on film, and that is also the brilliance of this movie. The story it is a tad conventional but then most great love stories are. While it is not word for word Cash's biography, the film delivers a complicated love story and a look into the early life of an American troubadour. This film does not disappoint. James Mangold provides a faithfully reconstructed life of Cash, although he bends the facts just enough to make it more palatable for those who adore Cash.

Walk the Line is in some ways a travelogue of the beginning of the early country and infant rock music industries, and takes you through a crash course of the famous Sun Record artists who changed our music way back when. Whether or not all of this information is totally accurate, you wish that Cash, June Carter, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison really did hit the road together because it would have been mind-blowing. After all these musicians were the originals, the rule-breakers, right? At this point, I must focus on the music that ties up the entire movie making it a treat and a feast for the heart, as Joaquin Phoenix delivered renditions of Cash's famous songs with scary accuracy, so much so that I felt Cash must have guided the actor himself. I basked in the elegant simplicity of Cash's songs, and I owe that to the actor who profoundly played the man in black. Reese Witherspoon did a remarkable job of singing her way through a film playing a woman, who remarked in real life, that she could not sing.

Walk the Line Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Patrick, Ginnifer Goodwin & Larry Bagby III Director: James Mangold View the Trailer (Quicktime) Related Articles Meet Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash Capote Ray

My one problem with Mangold and the direction of the story is the fact that Cash's first wife Vivian is portrayed as a cold woman devoid of support for Cash until he can adequately support them with his music, and even then she is promoted as a nasty piece of work. Apparently some of her children are not too thrilled with that twist and this may be the film's only flaw. I know this type of plot element assists the audience to support the hero and validate his drug addiction, alcoholism, and infidelities, but I think his own demons would have been sufficient enough without defaming a woman who cannot defend herself. In fairness to Mangold's direction he does deliver Cash as he was, a boozing, pill-popping man who was spiraling out of control and on the verge of losing everything, while at the same time in love with a woman who kept him at a distance. June Carter was Johnny Cash's salvation, and that is the very real truth of this film. Theirs was a love story for the books and you pull for Cash to have his unrequited love come to fruition.

At Oscar time, my money is on the biopic actors and movies for nominations, and I foresee an awesome battle because Phoenix and Hoffman are equally brilliant in different ways. It would only be fair this year to have a tie. Honest.

Originally Posted: November 22, 2005