"That's a nice-a donut."

Wednesday, May 03, 2006


Walk the Line (2005)

Walk the Line, from director James Mangold, is the biographical story of famed singer Johnny Cash. It follows more or less the same structure and pattern as the previous year's Ray about Ray Charles starring Jaime Foxx. That is to say it shows a sketch of a turbulent event from his childhood, then moves on to show the trying early days in his budding music career, followed by his success and high points, and then a slow vicious cycle of self-destruction and temporary reprieves. And, of course, it ends on a positive note.

But back to the beginning... Early in his life Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) showed signs of being into music, but the death of his brother who he was very close to would haunt him. It would provide the angst and motivation for much of his work in his career. A gig in the military, and then as a door-to-door salesman didn't do much for him, until he one day begged Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts) to give him a chance and hear his band. The rest, as they say, is history. Amidst his ups and downs, he goes through one marriage (Ginnifer Goodwin as Vivian), and strives for years to woo fellow singer June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). He also succumbs to a pill addiction and struggles to deal with his unforgiving and hard-nosed father.

Witherspoon won the recent Best Actress Oscar for her work and is very good - she is thoroughly commanding as June. Her Southern charm and demeanor is just what the role needed. Phoenix is also good, but never fully takes control of his role, as Reese does. The music is also good, and the duet scenes with June and John are some of the highlights.

The problem is that the music is not integrated well enough with the story; it simply ends up being just another piece in the pattern. They set up some event in Johnny's life where he has trouble or something bad happens, then we see the effects of this. Then he is shown recovering, then playing music, then something else bad happens. Repeat. Mangold tries to tell too many stories, rarely settling in and getting into a groove of just focusing on a few particular aspects of Cash's story. And the part of the movies that it does focus on the most is Johnny's addiction to pills, which could have been a fine story on its own, but yet is never given the full attention that it deserved in order to make it really stand out.

Some of the other famous names that June and John play with are fun and interesting - like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Roy Orbison. But the movies seems to go out of its way to point out to us that these are in fact famous people. Elvis! Jerry Lee! Orbison! Instead of a wink, it's a full-on nudge. While this is a minor point, it goes hand in hand with the main weakness of the film - it is just trying to do too many things. I would have been perfectly fine had the film been strictly on Cash's famous Folsom Prison concert. Unfortunately that is relegated to near the end, and is only a brief diversion in this wayward journey.

The Verdict: C+.

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