Movie Review: Walk the Line

Walk the Line

I've never been a Johnny Cash fan. If not for him, I'd never have even heard of his wife, June Carter Cash. But there was so much attention being given to the biographical movie — including early Oscar™ buzz — that I felt almost obligated to see it. Although high praise from reviewers doesn't always mean a film deserves it, I'm happy to say that Walk the Line is every good thing we've heard it is and then some.

Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) grew up during the Depression and through the second World War as the son of a poor sharecropper (Ray Cash, played by Robert Patrick) on an Arkansas cotton farm. His father's distance and clear favoritism for his older son shaped the young J.R. (as he was called by his family) as much as did his mother's love for singing hymns. A childhood tragedy also contributed greatly to the make up of the man J.R. later became.

As a young man, J.R. joins the Air Force. The Korean War is ongoing, but J.R. is at a distance; he's stationed at a base in Germany where he fills his spare time learning to play the guitar, and trying to write songs. He's also obsessed with his girlfriend back home, the pretty Vivian Liberto (Ginnifer Goodwin). Though Vivian's father is no fan of the young soldier wooing his daughter, John eventually wins her hand and settles into a small apartment with his wife and a new baby. Trying his hand at door to door sales in Memphis with little success, he yearns for his music even as his young wife tries to get him to settle down and be more responsible by taking a job with her father in Texas.

John is finishing up another long day when he happens by a small recording studio where, for a few dollars, fledgling musicians can record their own songs. He has no money to spare for such things, though, so he begs owner Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts) for an audition. John and a couple of his buddies have been playing casually in their spare time for months, and they head for the studio with high hopes. Unfortunately, the gospel music they play doesn't impress Phillips in the least, and he bluntly tells them so. Out of sheer desperation, John plays a song he wrote about a man doing hard time in Folsom Prison. Phillips is no idiot; he agrees to work with the earnest singer/songwriter, and Johnny Cash is born.

In those days, incessant touring was the only way that singers could both make a living and get the exposure they needed to ensure radio airplay and record sales. It's on one such tour that Johnny meets pretty June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). Carter has been performing since she was a small child, and Johnny is new to touring so her calm advice is welcome. Eventually, traveling around the country, the entire troupe become friends. Waylon Jennings (who is played by his son, Shooter Jennings), a young Elvis Presley (Tyler Hilton), Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Malloy Payne), Roy Orbison (Johnathan Rice), and more of the soon-to-be greats are among them.

Although Johnny is successful with his music, his wife is running out of patience. Her husband isn't often home and when he is, he's exhausted. She also worries about the growing friendship between Johnny and June. Eventually, Vivian can no longer hide her disdain. Johnny's disappointment in himself only grows when he's still unable to please his hard-hearted father. He escapes his unhappy home life by touring some more, and then by sliding into drinking and worse. Cash's career — and his life — might have ended shortly after that if not for his adoration of June. Though both are married, and June makes it clear she's not interested, Johnny's not inclined to give up though he runs into more than a few stumbling blocks along the way.

Joaquin Phoenix has already been singled out for high praise and for rumors of Oscar™ as a result of his performance as Johnny Cash. It's true that Phoenix is astoundingly good in the role. Making his performance even more amazing is the fact that he learned to play guitar just for this part, and that he does all of his own singing (both of which he does credibly, by the way). What you may not have heard is just what a stunning performance Reese Witherspoon gives. She more than holds her own as an actress in the face of Phoenix's formidable talent, and then goes beyond that with some terrific tunes of her own. When the two perform duets, not only is the music enjoyable but the on screen chemistry is such that you've no doubt in your mind whatsoever that Johnny and June were destined to be together.

Ginnifer Goodwin and Robert Patrick are both good, especially the latter. In fact, I loathed Patrick's character which is a good indicator that the actor did a fine job in the creation of a man who apparently knew little about love and even less about raising children, but who did his best despite it all. The supporting cast is also excellent.

James Mangold, the director of such films as the wonderful Girl, Interrupted and the woefully underrated Identity, did a fine job directing Walk the Line; as the co-writer of the screenplay, his vested interest in the movie was clear and likely enhanced his direction. There are some edits that seem abrupt and effectively interrupt the flow of the story; there are a few matters that are mysteriously skipped or glossed over (perhaps these are scenes that will be returned to the film in the eventual DVD version). But as a whole, the film is well crafted, and the music, by the way, is terrific.

The terrific performances alone are worth the price of a ticket, but the story, too, is something well worth telling. Johnny Cash really was one of the greats despite his personal flaws; that he overcame many of those shortcomings only makes him an even better man. And the love story between him and June Carter Cash is at once poignant and passionate, and will likely prove inspirational as well. Walk the Line isn't perfect, but it's awfully, awfully close...

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Walk the Line is rated PG-13 for "some language, thematic material, and depiction of drug dependency." Small children aren't going to enjoy this movie anyway, and even older kids may not enjoy it much thanks to the fact it takes place in a past they've never known and features people they've likely heard of only in passing. But for adults, Walk the Line has much to recommend it. I said I wasn't a Johnny Cash fan, and I wasn't. But Walk the Line was a film I thoroughly enjoyed, and as a result, even gained some appreciation for Cash's musical legacy. I recommend Walk the Line to movie and music fans alike. It truly doesn't get much better than this.