Walk the Line (2005)

WALK THE LINE  (2005)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: James Mangold
    Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Shelby Lynne,
    Robert Patrick, Ginnifer Goodwin, Tyler Hamilton
Johnny Cash gets the Hollywood biopic treatment in a movie that follows the Man in Black from the cotton fields of Arkansas (and a horrifying sawmill accident that killed his older brother) through a hitch in the Air Force, his early days with Sun Records, marriage, kids, addiction, jail, music and the road, and most significantly, his ongoing romantic pursuit of muse, collaborator and eventual life partner June Carter. It's a well-intended misfire that covers most of the bases without ever capturing the essence of Johnny Cash. Phoenix plays Cash as a sullen, self-pitying jerk (which he no doubt sometimes was), but mostly misses his dark, playful wit. In the movie, Cash seems to suffer for his sins while he's still committing them, and while transgression and atonement were a big part of his mystique, Cash understood the flip side, too: that sinning was fun, or folks wouldn't keep on doing it. He might've come at you like the wounded voice of God, but you could tell he'd danced with the devil a few times, too, and his songs let you know he'd had a good time, to boot. Give Phoenix credit for taking the risk and doing his own singing, but watching the movie is like going to a bar to check out a decent cover band. It gets the look right sometimes, and sometimes comes close to the sound, but it's not the real thing.