Walk the Line

December has a ton of new movies coming out, many on the same weekends: The Chronicles of Narnia, Memoirs of a Geisha, Brokeback Mountain, Munich, The Producers and many more. But as we head into the overstuffed Oscar season, some of the more note-worthy films are already out. I've already mentioned The Squid and the Whale and Capote, and one more to add to the list of recommendations is Walk the Line.

Although this film has received a lot of attention already, I just thought I'd quickly add my two cents. The first thing that sticks out in my mind with this film is just how awesome Joaquin Phoenix is. I've admired his work for some time, from To Die For to Gladiator, but nothing prepared me for this performance. I was originally a little confused as to why he was cast. Not only does he not exactly resemble Johnny Cash (although I can't think of an actor who does), he has a very distinctive look of his own, with his heavy eyes and sharp bone structure. But, at the risk of employing an over-used word, he really is amazing. There's a lot of adjectives to describe what he brings to the picture - smoldering, damaged, desperate, ambitious, funny, fucked-up - sometimes all in one scene.


But halfway through the film is when he really surprises. Stumbling on stage in a drunken, drugged-out stupor, he blazes through his act, heaving his guitar and staring down the audience and band members with wide, crazy eyes before kicking and smashing his equipment and finally passing out. It's almost scary how intense and uncontrollable he is.

Matching him with brassiness instead of intensity, Reese Witherspoon plays June Carter, the country music veteran who second-guesses her talent. I've always been a fan of Witherspoon's, especially after seeing Election. And while the movie is itself a piece of fluff, she displayed really impressive comic timing in Legally Blonde. Although I wouldn't elevate her performance in Walk the Line to the amazing, flawless piece of art that some reviews seem to be doing, she more than holds her own.

Plus, they both do their own singing, and while I found Witherspoon to swing between just okay and pretty great, Phoenix really impresses with a near-perfect (notice I said "near," all you Cash purists out there) impression of Cash's basement-dwelling bass.

The film, however, doesn't quite live up to the greatness of Phoenix's performance and the chemistry he shares with Witherspoon. While perfectly fine for what it's trying to do, it feels very reminiscent of Ray and other musical biopics: traumatic childhood experience, problems with women, alcohol and drugs, the wife suffering on the side, the early rise, the fall, the redemption, etc. Plus, the redemption towards the end seems really rushed and the very end is abrupt and anti-climatic, not deserving of the man the film revolves around.



Walk the Line thankfully only covers the first half of his life so, instead of skipping along from event to event to cram everything in, it gets to dig deeper and develop the characters and stories it focuses on. And it's really cool to see those stories, like Cash and Carter's tour with Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. Can you imagine seeing all of those acts in one night?

So, before the holiday season becomes truly crazy, I'd recommend seeing this movie. It's definitely worth seeing on the big screen. The way the camera swoops in and around the musicians as they perform, catching every little wink, smirk and eye-roll between Carter and Cash as they perform together, you feel like you're right there with them. You almost feel special for being allowed so close, witnessing greatness from only inches away.