Here is a review from LIBERTAS that I think is right.
Movie Review: Walk The Line
LIBERTAS - libertyfilmfestival.com
The new Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line (opening this weekend) is a well-crafted, absorbing piece of Americana that conservatives should go out and support. Shocking for a movie made in today’s Hollywood, the film treats two Red State American icons, Johnny Cash (played by Joaquin Phoenix) and June Carter Cash (played by Reese Witherspoon), with affection and respect. The film also compellingly documents one of the most fertile and inventive periods in American musical history: the 1950s and 1960s. I knew next to nothing about Johnny Cash or his music going into the film, but after of listening to 136 minutes of his terrific music, I came out a fan.
American icons.
Walk The Line is built around two main narratives. The first is the rise of Johnny Cash from poor Arkansas sharecropper’s son to musical superstar - and the second is that of the turbulent, life-long romance between Cash and his second wife, June Carter Cash. Johnny Cash had a romantic fixation with singing star June Carter from childhood on, when he first heard her perform as a child star on the radio. The mythic place she occupied in his imagination, and the way that Cash considered marriage to her the ultimate culminatation of his life and his art, is movingly documented in the film. Joaquin Phoenix in particular does an outstanding job conveying Cash’s emotional turmoil as he fights to win June Carter’s love. When they first meet, they’re both married to other people and have children and families to keep together. Though Cash and Carter are attracted to each other (both romantically and artistically) and are continually thrown together as they tour the country, they exercise self-restraint over a period of many years. It’s only when Carter is divorced, and Cash’s marriage is already on the rocks, that they finally give in to their feelings for each other. And it’s only after many more years, after Cash kicks drugs and overcomes his self-destructive behavior, that June Carter finally agrees to marry him. Their relationship is hard-earned - and because of that, enduring. The movie shows that Cash and Carter had a real respect for each other as performers, and that it was their artistic collaboration that was the essential substrate to their romantic relationship.
Romance.
The most enjoyable part of Walk The Line, though, is the music. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon do an excellent job recreating the musical numbers of Cash and Carter. They both do their own singing (they’re quite good), and their lively performances on stage are the most engaging part of the movie. I also appreciated the fact that the film played so many of Johnny Cash’s songs in their near-entirety. One of the few things I didn’t like about last year’s Ray was that the film didn’t include enough of Ray Charles’ music. You would get the beginning or middle of a song, and then far too abruptly the film would cut away before you could really enjoy the music. There’s no such problem here. Johnny Cash’s music gets its full due, and there are also entertaining performances by the actors who play Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and other musical figures (though the actor who plays Elvis Presley is a weak exception).
The film also provides excellent acting opportunities for Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. Phoenix does an outstanding job playing Cash - he captures his mannerisms, quirks, and neuroses perfectly. Johnny Cash himself apparently chose Phoenix to play him in the film, and this role will probably earn Phoenix an Oscar nomination. Reese Witherspoon will also probably get an Oscar nomination for her role as June Carter, though she’s emotionally less invested in her role than Phoenix is in his (she’ll probably be nominated regardless, due to her current popularity in the industry).
And that’s the only complaint I have about the acting in the film. While overall everybody is good, and Phoenix is outstanding, there are times when the supporting characters come off as one-dimensional. Witherspoon is convincing as the driven career woman and consummate entertainment professional, but she’s less believable as a woman passionately in love with Johnny Cash. I believe that Cash is in love with her, but I don’t believe that she’s in love with him. Witherspoon is too self-controlled, too perfect and poised. While this works for most of the film, by the last third I wish she would show more inner turmoil over her relationship with Cash, more genuine emotion. When she turns down his repeated offers of marriage, it looks all too easy for her; there’s no suffering, no real struggle.
The depiction of Cash’s father suffers from the same problem. He’s cold, distant, and hostile the whole way through, and never really seems to change. Cash’s first wife Vivian is also one-dimensional. She’s depicted as shrill, demanding, and unsympathetic - and also never changes. Again, the performances are still good, but they would have been even better if the director or the writer could have envisioned greater complexity for these roles.
Ensemble.
One of my favorite books about acting is Michael Shurtleff’s “Audition.” In it, Shurtleff talks about the need to always play opposites; whatever the character is as written on the page, the actor should always find a way to also play the opposite. If an actress is saying “No” to someone in the scene, she should at the same time be playing “Yes.” If a scene is humorous, an actor should find the seriousness. If a scene is serious, an actor should find the humor. If an actor is playing a dastardly villain, he should find a way to give that villain warmth, charm and humor - and the villain will be all the more convincing. If an actress is playing a heroine, she should find a way to give that heroine faults like vanity, capriciousness, and folly, and the heroine will be all the more endearing. Just look at two of the greatest movie heroines of all time - Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind, and Bette Davis in All About Eve, Jezebel, Now, Voyager. It’s that playing of opposites that gives drama and dynamic tension to a scene and to a character. If Witherspoon’s self-control could have broken down more often, if the father could have shown more humanity, and if the first wife could have shown a shred of sympathy for Cash and his hard work, the movie’s core relationships would have been even more convincing. In any case, the acting is still quite good, and this should not be taken as a major problem with the film.
Overall,Walk The Line is well crafted and entertaining. It’s a movie that conservatives can enjoy without having their values or their intelligence gratuitously insulted. It’s nice to see a film in which talent and hard work are celebrated, and people from rural America who hold traditional values are treated with respect. Most importantly, it’s a fitting tribute to the musical legacy of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and their 35 years of marriage and their 50-plus years of musical achievement. |
