Walk The Line

Released just a year apart, one could be tempted to lump RAY (featuring its Oscar-winning, star-making performance by Jamie Foxx) and director James Mangold's Johnny Cash retrospective together. Both movies pay homage to their respective subjects while willingly exploring some of the darker sides of their psyches. WALK THE LINE, however, proves to be the more satisfying film by far, equally effective as an absorbing musical tribute and a touching love story. With Cash's rich catalogue of soul-baring, introspective fare to work with, it greatly benefits from a shrewd song selection that serves the story well, beautifully mirroring the drama unfolding onscreen [rather than trying to encapsulate the singer's forty-plus years in music, the focus here is placed largely on the musician's initial rise to fame and his lengthy courtship of his second wife, fellow singer June Carter]. Watching Cash's interactions with rock luminaries like Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley is a genuine treat, providing the movie with some of its funniest and most revealing exchanges.

With such big shoes to fill, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon - two talented young actors with no previous musical experience to speak of - easily rise to the occasion; simply put, the two are flat-out amazing in their roles. Phoenix expertly channels Cash's deep baritone and stage mannerisms, but what really makes his performance so fascinating is his ability to flesh out Cash's struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, his marital woes, and an unsympathetic father who not-so-secretly blames Johnny for his brother's death. Witherspoon, for her part, is absolutely dynamite as the sassy entertainer who becomes Cash's emotional rock. A natural stage performer, Carter lacked her lover's musicianship and artistry but easily proved to be the more grounded and level-headed of the two. Her frisky onstage banter masked the steely resolve of a twice-divorced single parent managing the waters of a male-dominated music industry, and Witherspoon taps into that strength in an endlessly engaging performance that will likely net her a well-deserved Oscar. Their musical performances together (featuring pre-recorded vocals by the actors themselves) are positively electric, but their chemistry is just as kinetic offstage.

A devout Christian throughout his life, Cash never hesitated using his songwriting to explore the topic of good and evil. Along with June, he often cited God as his greatest inspiration, and a definitive film biography would most certainly address the musician's spirituality with some depth. WALK THE LINE is not that film, and yet by narrowing its scope, you get a more satisfying - and genuinely entertaining - film that does full justice to the music, if not necessarily the man. I swear, if you leave this movie without the burning desire to run out and buy one of Cash's albums, you're clearly some kind of robot.