Review of 'Walk the Line'
“Walk the Line” explains the backing story of the man in black: The legendary singer “Johnny Cash” (Joaquin Phoenix). Brought up in an abusive and unsupportive household afraid of his violent father (Robert Patrick) who partly blames John for the death of his brother Jack (Lucas Till), John struggles to find happiness in his life. Married to a demanding and selfish wife Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin) and working as a door salesman in a job he is not interested in, John spends all the time he can working on lyrics to songs that always run through his head. When record producer Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts) provides some helpful advice having heard John aping other performers of the day, John comes out of his shell and presents his own material which goes onto become extremely popular and propels John to fame and fortune. Travelling with other acts such as Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Payne), Elvis Presley (Tyler Hilton) and Carl Perkins (John Holiday) around the US he finds himself attracted to fellow performer June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), who is also married, and he develops a drug addiction. With the help of those who truly love him he will have to dig deep to pull himself out of the pit and find true happiness.
The film does feel slightly long with the plot often taking a long time to go anywhere, taking time to focus on the struggles of the main characters but at the same time chopping years out of the narrative to move onto the next scene. A lot of the nuances of the characters that provide insight as to why they do what they do such as John's inexplicable income despite being a completely inept salesman appears to be missing. The scenes cut from the final theatrical release of the film do provide some of these details which perhaps would have been better suited to have being left in place.
An impressive performance both musically and artistically by Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash. Despite his often flat expressions he manages to convey so much with not saying nothing, his eyes and manner saying all that needs to be said. Reese Witherspoon is great as his fellow musician and would-be lover June Carter who also puts on an amazing performance as the singer who feels she has to resort to belittling humour in a man's world in order to succeed. Equally, Robert Patrick's performance as John's father is frightfully chilling, never giving any hint of affection or love for anything or anyone. Truth be told, the only “nice” primary character is June with everyone else having a nasty, selfish streak that threatens to tear their lives and the lives of those around them apart.
The music is great featuring a number of Cash's early works but also the classic “Run of Fire” and, of course, “Walk the Line”. This is a film that is never without music with the haunting blues music following Johnny's entire life story.
Telling the story of a man with a very troubled past, “Walk the Line” is an incredibly personal journey about finding love and what truly matters in your life. The music is great and the performances are equally impressive.
Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”
Review Date: 2025-02-02
Directed by: James Mangold
Studio: Fox 2000 Pictures
Year: 2005
Length: 136 minutes
Genre: Melodrama
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358273/
Other reviewed films by James Mangold:
- Logan (2017)