Movie Reviews
I�ll fly a starship, �cross the universe divide. And when I reach the other side, I�ll find a place to rest my spirit if I can. Perhaps I may become a highwayman again. Or I may simply be a single drop of rain. But I will remain.
�- Johnny�s Cash�s verse from the song �Highwayman�
For those who loved Johnny Cash, those who hated him, and those who�ve never heard of him, �Walk the Line� is a great film. Like last year�s �Ray� this is a biopic about one of America�s most beloved musicians, featuring a stunning performance by its lead, and taking us deep into the dark moments the life it�s based on.
Johnny Cash was, is, and forever will be an American legend. His uniqueness came from his low-pitched, scruffy voice and his brazing lyrics that might have been the only portal into his soul. His death two years ago was not so much a national tragedy as it was a time to remember a life filled with turmoil and sadness.
James Mangold�s film is like the funeral none of us ever got to go to and the remembrance ceremony nobody got to see. Beginning � after a short intro � when Johnny is a boy, the film shows him pressed up against an old radio trying to listen to young June Carter sing a song. His older brother J.R. lies in bed and reads his Bible like he�s supposed to be. Jack (Johnny�s name as a boy) asks his brother why he�s always doing what he�s told; it�s so hard for him to do what�s right. J.R. explains humbly that if he�s going to be a preacher when he grows up, he�s got to obey his parents and know the Bible through and through. A few words of encouragement don�t seem to sink in when J.R. tells Jack that he compensates by knowing every single hymn in Mom�s old hymnal, but his words might have well dictated Jack�s whole life.
J.R. works at a woodshop down the road from a pond where he and Jack like to fish, and the next day they�ve decided that when J.R. is finished they are going to do just that. We watch with ominous tension as Jack impatiently sits, watching his brother work the table saw. It jams, locking a large piece of wood in the blade, and making it impossible for J.R. to pull it out or shut the machine off. Jack does his job speedily, running to his brother�s side and slamming the big red button on the machine to shut it down. When he resumes his seat, J.R. tells him to go on and go fishing. He�ll catch up with him when he�s finished.
Mangold directs with inglorious realism as Jack�s father takes him to his brother�s deathbed later that afternoon and makes him watch as J.R., bloody and pale, dies slowly. Ray, their father, blames the whole ordeal on Jack. It�s a horrible thing to watch little Jack run to his bed and bury his head in his pillows as his father screams that God took the wrong son.
Only a childhood such as that could�ve spawned such a flawed genius as Johnny Cash.
And here comes Joaquin Phoenix as the Man in Black himself. Phoenix is so much like him in voice, appearance, and characteristic that it�s as if he�s broadcasting the soul of Cash for one last run before it leaves earth forever. Watch the way Phoenix plays his guitar and move his lips, and try and tell me different. This performance proves what I�ve thought about Phoenix since �Gladiator�: he�s one of the fine actors working today. The movie and the performance are more impressive than �Ray� altogether.
Reese Witherspoon is also an overlooked talent coming out of Hollywood. We don�t see it when she makes movies like �Cruel Intentions.� Witherspoon plays June Carter, the woman (as the film shows) who sticks with Johnny through everything: the drug use, the affairs, the overwhelming fame. She is flawless.
I guess the adoration I have for the performances comes from my love of Johnny Cash�s music and the fact that Phoenix and Witherspoon do all their own singing. I love it when actors make themselves vulnerable like this; putting their names on the line for great entertainment and for roles that they must have been born to play.
You�ve got movies like this where the major chunk of playing time is superb, and then you get to the ending, and there is none. �Walk the Line� suffers from this. With straight-forward biopics like this, we need a straight-forward closing. There are important characters with considerable screen time that have no conclusion. Aside from that, we don�t get the undeniable glorification of Johnny; one that makes us sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that this movie was made for Cash and Cash alone. *** �