Walk the Line

Narratively, it’s very similar to Ray, with an equally straightforward and essentially very simple plot, relying mainly on the strong performances. However, unlike Taylor Hackford, James Mangold has a much greater sense for portraying intimate scenes, and above all, Walk the Line is much more sincere and honest as a whole, compared to the overly politically correct Ray. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon give their absolute best and their performances rank among the finest to be seen in the past year – Reese's Oscar is very well-deserved. Unfortunately, Johnny Cash's biopic has its downsides as well. These include a somewhat too simple script, a bit too many clichés and those typically polished and visually appealing scenes that, with a bit of attention, are transparent as glass. Solid and above all proper craftsmanship, and in the end, just slightly better than the purely average, somewhat tedious and slightly tiring Ray. (14.08.2006)

Some movies will thoroughly change you, even with a proper distance. I mocked the country at the time of watching, Reese I more or less ignored, and everything was suddenly different after the screening. Although I don't actively listen to Cash, I took all the life warnings that Walk the Line subtly throws one after another to heart, and (however pathetically it may sound) I would like to believe that they helped me several times to turn correctly at the most important crossroads. This biographical spectacle is not among my top ten, not even among my top fifty. However, there is so much truth in it regarding temptations, difficult decisions, love, and career, that I once put Phoenix's portrait from the cartoon poster in my avatar - and I have kept it there until today. A personal film in the most obvious sense of the word. (08.09.2006)

Walk the Line is a musical biopic in the mold of Ray, but it’s a bit more sincere and concise, without so much Hollywood artifice, which can only be a good thing. Plus the superb duo of Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. If only they would start making such movies about directors, which are closer to my heart than musicians, with the same degree of love… (18.01.2006)

I first met Johnny Cash on U2's “Zooropa” while listening to the last song he sang with his beautiful deep voice (which Joaquin Phoenix also possesses), and although his work is not my cup of tea, he certainly deserved "his" movie for the inspiration that many music personalities, not only country but also rock, credit him with. Thankfully, Walk the Line isn't a boringly descriptive story, despite spanning a several eras, the viewer doesn't really learn much about Cash's achievements and work (which may disappoint die-hard fans), but the story focuses intimately on the formation of his relationship with his future wife June Carter (a sweetly vital Reese Witherspoon) and his almost obsession with her, showing his addiction to pills and his lifelong struggle to cope with the death of his brother. Joaquin not only sings beautifully and I believed his every move with the guitar in his hand, and his tormented look with the inner demons in his eyes, which he was constantly fighting with, was Oscar-worthy. Likewise Witherspoon, with the body of a fragile little bum, but the character of a strong woman and Cash's redeeming angel. The only thing that separates this film from 5* is the absence of a really strong scene that would be indelibly etched in my memory, except perhaps for a punishingly brief moment depicting a concert in Folsom Prison that gave me goosebumps. (16.03.2006)

I guess I've waited too long, because I've been sucked in a lot by various biographies or other films from the country and early rock and roll scene. I no longer see Walk the Line as above average anymore. I'm more bothered by the fact that the filmmakers only chose the romance with his second wife June from Johnny Cash's biography. It may have been enough for Oscar-winning performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, but it said almost nothing about the breadth of the phenomenon. (17.08.2022)