Walk The Line Review
by Jerry Saravia (faustus_08520 AT yahoo DOT com)March 7th, 2006
WALK THE LINE (2005)
Reviewed By Jerry Saravia
RATING: Three stars and a half
The toughest thing to do in a filmed biography is to
capture someone's essence and their heart. Some films,
like "The Aviator," "The Doors" or "The Great White Hope," capture the essence but not necessarily (or intentionally) the heart. I can live with either or both. What is unusual about James Mangold's "Walk the Line" is that it captures the essence and the heart of Johnny Cash beautifully, yet I think essence is all we really want from the Man in Black.
The film begins in Dyess, Arkansas in 1944 as we witness Cash's early years with his brother, his stern father (Robert Patrick) and mother (Shelby Lynne), living on a cotton farm. Johnny's elder brother dies in an unfortunate accident involving a buzz saw, and his father forever blames John for it (the circumstances today still remain a mystery). Flash forward to Germany as an older Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) enlists in the Air Force and writes a couple of songs while stationed there (one of them being "Folsom Prison Blues," which is inspired by a documentary he watched called "Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison").
Meanwhile, Johnny Cash heads back to Tennessee, marries his first wife Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin), has children, but can't seem to cut it as a door-to-door salesman. Still, his dreams lay in a singing career as he forms a band called "The
Tennessee Two" with two mechanics. His wife is none too pleased but Johnny Cash's career skyrockets after cutting a demo at Sun Records, and the rest is history. But his
newfound fame really takes off when he meets June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), a young dynamo of a singer from
country royalty in good old Memphis. This sparks a friendship and love that endures more detours than you'll find at the Long Island Expressway.
During the course of Johnny Cash's early years as a singer, specifically from the 1950's to the late 1960's, he gets addicted to amphetamines, divorces Vivian, goes on
endless tours with June and the band, and drinks and grows a nasty temper (in one intense moment, Johnny tears a
bathroom sink from the wall.) In the end, all he wants is June Carter's love but receiving is a battle all its own.
Joaquin Phoenix is phenomenal as Johnny Cash, showing
the singer's dependency on speed, his desperate need not to be separated from June Carter, his violent outbursts, and his eerie calmness when talking to his formerly abusive and drunk father. Phoenix also does something else - he shows Cash's boundless energy on the stage that is truly electrifying to watch. You'll forget that you are watching Mr. Phoenix on stage (he sang all the vocals). What is most stirring is seeing how easily you can be seduced by the music. When he asks June to sing "Time's A Wastin'," despite her objections, you see how easily she goes along with it - you can't help but be seduced by Johnny's charm.
Reese Witherspoon gives her best performance since "Election," demonstrating an alarming sense of vitality. I say alarming because Witherspoon basically jumps off the screen with her sweet singing voice, her smarts, her wit, her dynamic
enthusiasm and her love for Cash whom she is waiting to mature (basically, to walk the line). Both Witherspoon and Phoenix have incalculable chemistry but it is Witherspoon who
shows what a real force of nature she is - she is a tornado that practically wipes Phoenix off the screen. Even in her small moments, particularly when criticized for her past marriages by an unlikely fan, Witherspoon is as watchable a presence as any young actress.
James Mangold ("Girl Interrupted") does more than a serviceable job as director - he revitalizes the biographical musical genre. And in doing so, he also trims the typical narrative fat that makes up most bios to narrowly focus on the developing
relationship between Johnny and June. You must understand that "Walk the Line" is not intended to be insightful about Johnny's relationship to music - only to the woman who
emotionally supported him till the end.
Sometimes a phrase says it all. There is a line that Cash's father says during an uneventful Thanksgiving dinner. He tells his son that Jack Benny's house was bigger than Johnny's. How does his father know this? He saw it on TV. Cash may have had a smaller house but he will always be bigger than Jack Benny. And it is his June Carter Cash who made that possible. R.I.P Johnny and June.
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