Walk The Line Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)November 14th, 2005
WALK THE LINE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
WALK THE LINE is a funny and very entertaining but needlessly long biopic of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash by director James Mangold (KATE & LEOPOLD). Giving some of the best performances of their careers, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon play Johnny and June. They appear almost certain to get Academy Award nominations for their work, but they probably won't end up taking home the statuettes.
Unlike Jamie Foxx, who really chewed up the scenery last year in his Oscar turn in RAY, Phoenix is much more reserved. Only when Johnny temporarily loses June or his pills does he ever throw temper tantrums. Like Ray Charles, Johnny suffered from an addiction to drugs -- pills in Johnny's case -- and alcohol.
The movie brackets the story with Johnny's famous live performance in Folsom prison. His young teenage fans loved to send him photos of themselves in skimpy bathing suits for him to look at in his prison cell. The irony was that he wrote his famous song while in the service in Germany and was never imprisoned, although he did spend a little time in jail when he was found with unprescribed prescription medicine in his possession.
Although Johnny was married to Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin, MONA LISA SMILE), who was a very traditional, stay-at-home wife uninterested in Johnny's career, his best friend was his co-singer June Carter. June went through a couple of husbands before she sort of reluctantly accepted Johnny's hand in marriage and his assurance that his life of addition would be over forever.
If you like Cash's music, the movie will be a real treat, as Phoenix, with a good voice, sings Cash's music again and again. Before Cash becomes famous, he goes on car caravans from venue to venue along with other singers on the bill, which include June Carter and Jerry Lee Lewis, among others. From Tyler, Texas to Texarkana, they play at small halls with less than a hundred on hand. Johnny first gets addicted while on the road, and once he gets rich, he becomes able to afford enough drugs to really screw up his life.
Among the many subplots in the picture is one involving the issues that Johnny has with his father Ray (Robert Patrick), who resents that it was Johnny's brother -- who was going to be a preacher -- who died rather than Johnny. "The devil did this. He took the wrong son," Ray tells Johnny soon after the accident that happened when Johnny wasn't even there.
June tells Johnny when they first meet that he has a "sound like a train, sharp as a razor." She also pooh-poohs her own vocal abilities, claiming that it is her "personality and sass" that is her chief talent. Well, even if you find the storyline feels a bit too much like a soap opera, the songs are sublime, so the movie should have universal appeal.
WALK THE LINE runs 2:16. It is rated PG-13 for "some language, thematic material and depiction of drug dependency" and would be acceptable for kids around 11 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, November 18, 2005. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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Email: [email protected]
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