Movie Review

Walk the Line

In the genre of formulaic musical bios hoping to gain Oscar buzz, we have "Walk the Line". Joaquin Phoenix plays the "man in black", Johnny Cash. His story begins in Arkansas where he is influenced by folk music and his mother's hymns. He sadly also loses his brother in a saw accident he will never forget. Johnny joins the Air Force, during such time he meets his first wife Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin). After serving, Johnny gets a job as a salesman while trying to break into the music business. He finally gets his chance with his song "Cry, Cry, Cry." The song?s success sends him on a whirlwind tour towards stardom, his lovely singing partner June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), and drug addiction.

From this "Line" becomes a love story. Johnny and June meet in a cute fashion when her dress gets caught in his guitar string. June, a performer since the age of ten, turns it into a comedy routine. Johnny is instantly enamored with her and June is taken by him, but she is no idiot. In a way, Johnny and June are two lost souls, he a pill-popping musician involved in a marriage to someone who never supported him and she the ever loyal singing companion who knows he?s self-destructive. In waiting for him to clean himself up, she goes through several other marriages, which wind up in divorce. Much like "Ray", the movie spends a lot of time on melodrama such as Johnny's divorce from Vivian and his continuing problem with pills. This is inter-spliced with Cash concerts where young girls scream and throw themselves at him, only this is as far as the film goes in explaining his musical accomplishments.

The acting is first-rate with Phoenix leading the way with deep-voiced coolness. He plays Cash as a wounded, vulnerable, swaggering tough guy, dealing with a rough past through the music he writes. Reese Witherspoon is just as good, with her heavy southern accent and energetic perkiness as June. They even do their own singing, which adds even more to their chemistry. If "Walk the Line" tells us nothing else, and it doesn?t really, it's that Johnny Cash and June Carter were a pitch-perfect match meant to be together.

Craig's Grade: B-

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%