It's Worth a Wait in Line to See Walk the Line

It seems biopics have become incredibly popular lately, with such films as A Beautiful Mind, Finding Neverland, Kinsey, Beyond the Sea and Capote, to name a few. All sorts of prominent figures are fair game, but two of the highest-profile ones lately have focused on musicians. (Next up: Old Friends: the Simon and Garfunkel Story! Anyone? Except Ray Charles and Johnny and June Carter Cash died shortly after someone decided to make movies about them, so maybe it’s bad luck…) Though I’ve yet to see Ray, I did get around to seeing Walk the Line just in time for the Oscars. Ironically, we had been discussing seeing it at the dollar theater after we went out to dinner, but the timing was off, so we decided to rent a movie instead and it was available. It’s amazing how quickly movies go to video these days!

At any rate, Walk the Line is an informative and engrossing film focusing on Johnny Cash’s life up to the point of his marriage to June Carter. Although I had seen several previews for the film and interviews with cast members, it wasn’t clear to me that the movie did not chronicle his entire life, so I was surprised at how it ended, but I think the decision to focus on Johnny and June’s courtship was a good one, and it made the film feel more at times like a romance than a biopic. Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the Man in Black was inspired, but it was the perky performance of Reese Witherspoon as his wife-to-be that was most arresting. For two actors with little experience singing in public, both did quite well performing the vocals of the legendary singers. Phoenix didn’t look or sound a great deal like Cash, but his delivery allowed the audience to forget the physical dissimilarities. Witherspoon, meanwhile, was radiant throughout much of the film and vulnerable when she needed to be. Her singing voice was exquisite, and having recently listened to a concert on PBS in which June participated, I would venture to say I actually prefer Witherspoon’s voice to June’s.

As much as Witherspoon steals the show, though, this movie is first and foremost about Johnny and his journey. After opening on a moment much later in his life, the film flashes back to his boyhood, when his older brother, to whom he was extremely close, died in an accident with a saw. In these early scenes we see the deep affection between him and his hymn-loving mother Carrie (Shelby Lynne) and, conversely, the animosity with his father Ray (Robert Patrick) that made him hungry for intimacy in his life, leading to his marriage at a young age to Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin), a woman he’d dated only briefly. I heard that there were complaints that she was portrayed as not being supportive of Johnny’s career, but I thought that she came across pretty sympathetically for the most part. Cold at times, but it’s hard to blame her when her husband is gone all the time and flaunting his relationship with another woman.

One really fun aspect of this movie is how many famous musicians pop up at one time or another - among them, Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings, Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley. It’s interesting to see how interconnected these people were. Although we are meant to root for Johnny throughout the film, he is portrayed as a person with a lot of problems, including a fiery temper, insecurity and substance abuse. June fares better, as she is often the one to pick Johnny up out of his slump, and she generally maintains a positive attitude and allows her moral compass to guide her, even as she faces judgment by fellow Christians because of her failed marriages.

Walk the Line is a fascinating peek at the personal turmoil in the lives of two famous musicians who eventually beat the odds to come together harmoniously, in more ways than one. It doesn’t hold them up on a pedestal and present them as perfect people, but through their flaws we are able to see their beauty. Highly recommended for fans of either artist or those who enjoy romantic movies in general.