Friday Night In with ‘Walk the Line’
Posted by kittson on 16 Mar 2007 at 5:30 pm | Tagged as: Movies, Review, Friday Night In
If I were to list the events depicted in Walk the Line – music tours, infidelity, drug abuse, prison (hey, I did list them) – it may sound a lot like an episode of VH1’s Behind the Music. However, this film about the life of the late Johnny Cash (based on his own autobiographies) is no clichéd tale of failure and redemption intent on excusing or damning him for his transgressions. It’s a love story, and these missteps are the obstacles he and June Carter hurdle on their way to living happily ever after (really).
Directed by James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted), Walk the Line isn’t a glittery musical biopic. It’s dirty and desaturated, all the shades of brown making Cash’s black costumes stand out as the strongest visual statement. There’s a starkness, directness, and simplicity to the film that reflects and honors the soul of Cash’s music. The story comes first.
Joaquin Phoenix stars as Cash (yes, he does all his own singing). As you might expect from this intense actor, his Cash is much darker and more tormented than the easy guy we knew from television. Instead of impersonating him, he commits to his emotional struggle, his regrets and passions, then layers the familiar mannerisms on top – the way he holds his guitar slightly to the left, the way he dips his head at the end of phrases – all of which helped earn him an Oscar nomination.
Reese Witherspoon was also nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of June Carter, but she won. She’s quite good too, balancing the sunshine and sadness of the Cash’s lover and protector. Still I wouldn’t characterize this as an Oscar caliber performance. Her biggest competition was Felicity Huffman for Transamerica, and a beautiful, bona fide movie star who sings (oh yeah, she too does all her own singing, and they just love honoring actors when the sing) is a sure thing over a television star playing an unattractive transsexual when it comes to the Academy.
It’s snowing pretty hard here in the Northeast, so why not spend Friday night in with Walk the Line, and when it’s over you can download Johnny Cash At Fulsom Prison from iTunes. You know you’re going to do it.
Walk the Line is on HBO tonight at 7:30 pm and is available on HBO On Demand until April 1.
