Walk the Line

Though Walk the Line features several phenomenal performances and a lot of thoroughly enjoyable music, the increasingly laid-back pace, coupled with a final hour that is, at times, surprisingly dull, prevents the film from becoming the electrifying piece of work it clearly wants to be. Starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, Walk the Line charts the various ups and downs in Cash’s life – from the childhood loss of his brother to his record deal at the legendary Sun Records in Memphis to his eventual relationship with June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). Director and cowriter James Mangold employs a cookie-cutter sort of approach to the material, imbuing the film with virtually the exact same structure that Taylor Hackford used in last year’s Ray (right down to the traumatic childhood and relentless drug use). As a result, Walk the Line eventually becomes tedious and repetitive – something that’s exacerbated by the almost total lack of music in the film’s latter half (ie there are maybe two songs in the last 45 minutes, both of which aren’t even played all the way through). And as good as Phoenix is, he never quite becomes Johnny Cash to the extent that Jamie Foxx became Ray Charles; we’re always consciously aware that we’re watching Joaquin Phoenix pretend to be Cash. But really, it’s the emphasis on Cash’s drug problem over his music that eventually sinks the film – as it’s the sort of story we’ve seen many, many times before, usually to far better effect than this.

** out of ****