Review: Walk the Line

Rated PG-13 | 136 mins

IMDB Info

Walk the Line will inevitably be compared to last year’s Ray because of its status as a musical-biopic, but hopefully the fact that it’s a much better movie is not ignored, either. Instead of just being about Johnny Cash the musician, as the former effort did for Ray Charles, the film focuses much more on the psychological workings of stardom. Director James Mangold isn’t nearly as concerned with explaining point-for-point what happened in Cash’s career as he is with using his lead actor, Joaquin Phoenix, to embody a juxtaposition between the music-icon’s persona and his inner-self. And what a performance it is. Phoenix takes a role that could’ve been given a straightforward treatment and turns it into a lyrical, soulful piece that commentates both on human-nature and the celebrity’s impact on society. Even better, surprisingly, is his co-star Reese Witherspoon, who gives the best female performance of the year as Cash’s object of affection and eventual wife, June. Brilliantly layering on a simple, but effective execution by Mangold, the two are both at the heights of their careers, especially when they perform in the film’s musical numbers, which are equally dramatically expressive as they are toe-tappers. Walk the Line is exactly what good entertainment should be: fascinating, captivating, and historically relevant. It is a solid reminder of the often-forgotten fact that when Hollywood actually musters up enough gusto to make something of significance, the outcome can be just as successful as that of anything playing exclusively in New York and LA.