Walk the Line - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution movie review

'Walk the Line': The love story feels real

By BOB LONGINO
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon look like the last two people on Earth who might pass for Johnny Cash and the love of his life, June Carter Cash.

Phoenix isn't nearly tall enough. Witherspoon's bone structure is way off. Still, both prove just right in "Walk the Line," the mostly serviceable but sometimes downright mesmerizing biopic of country music's legendary Man in Black.

20th Century Fox

'Walk the Line'

The verdict: Two lead performances worthy of Oscar nominations.

Director: James Mangold
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Shelby Lynne, Robert Patrick
Run time: 135 minutes
Release date: November 18, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for some language, thematic material and depiction of drug dependency.
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Phoenix and Witherspoon, who both do their own singing, know something about personality and soul and letting a character emanate from within. They do it so well in "Walk the Line" that both may be in line for Oscar nominations.

Unfortunately for them, neither delivers the take-no-prisoners kind of performance that Jamie Foxx unspooled in "Ray." Comparisons will be a given in that "Walk" comes on the heels of Foxx's Oscar triumph.

But that's like saying Angela Bassett as Tina Turner in "What's Love Got to Do With It" doesn't quite measure up to Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn in "Coal Miner's Daughter."

Maybe Bassett doesn't, but who wasn't jazzed by both?

"Walk" isn't as provocative as its lead performances. The film covers Cash's life as a young boy on an Arkansas cotton farm, through his unsuccessful first marriage and musical breakthrough with Sun Records to the performance stage where, in front of an appreciative audience, he convinces the reluctant, always perky June Carter to be his bride.

Phoenix's performance is like a perfectly measured cup of flour after a knife's been skimmed across the top to smooth the surface. He's forthright, assured and uses long, flowing arm and shoulder movements while singing to evoke Cash's essence.

There may not be a better scene in the movie than when Cash auditions for Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts) in a back room at Sun Records.

As Cash, Phoenix sings a hymn and then gets verbally dressed down for not offering up something more fresh and soul-baring.

Phoenix then slowly and assuredly sings "Folsom Prison Blues," and the deep timbre of the words, "But I shot a man in Reno / Just to watch him die," seem to shake the film at its core.

If you don't buy Phoenix as Cash, blame the Man in Black. Before his death, he reportedly picked the actor for the part. In real life, Cash was a huge fan of "Gladiator" and even invited Phoenix over for dinner, leaning in toward the actor to repeat in deep baritone the Oscar nominee's most famous line from the film, "Your wife moaned like a whore when they ravished her ..."

In "Walk," Witherspoon is Phoenix's equal, if not better half. Her June Carter is a firecracker, bouncing onstage to joke and sing or, later, tossing empty bottles at Cash and his drunken tourmates.

Their love story is never treacly or overly sentimental, but feels real, fiery and complicated.

What doesn't work in the film are some of the supporting parts, especially those cast to play Elvis Presley (Tyler Hilton), Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Payne) and Roy Orbison (Johnathan Rice), who all tour with Johnny and June in the early days of their careers. Waylon Jennings' son Shooter Jennings shows up briefly as his dad, in a scene that's almost a complete blank.

But, odd as it may seem, "Walk" works every time Phoenix picks up a guitar.

He's spot on in the film's reimagining of Cash's edgy performance in front of prisoners at Folsom Prison (in the film, the convicts stand, yell, clap and cheer more than they ever did in real life).

It's engaging, involving stuff, walking a fine line between reality and art.