Walk the Line (2005)

  I'm not one for biopics, generally, but this one had several things going for it:  1) Oscars 2) a performer I've actually heard of and was curious about and 3) positive reviews from all my acquaintances who saw it.

I didn't dislike it.  I found it to be fairly typical (musicians get drug problems, we know) but not uninteresting.  Joaquin Phoenix plays 'strung out' extremely well and Reese Witherspoon is charming and petite.  I found it more entertaining to see the other portrayals of famous acts that toured with Cash. The guy who played Jerry Lee Lewis had the attitude down pat and the kid who played Elvis looked stunningly like him.  Didn't have the speaking voice, but had that look.

The movie follows Johnny Cash's life from his dirt-poor upbringing and the death of his older brother to joining the Air Force and marrying his first wife, Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin).  After auditioning for Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts), Cash is signed to the label and begins touring with Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Payne), Elvis (Tyler Hilton),  and June Carter (Reese Witherspoon).  His home life decreases in direct proportion to his success and his drug use spirals.  In fact, the only jail time Johnny Cash ever spent was county lock-up after getting busted for buying narcotics over the border.  Through it all, June remained his best friend and confidante, eventually agreeing to marry him.

I found it incredibly irritating that the movie made a great deal out of Cash's attempts to live up to his father's ideals.  I understand that all children feel that need to please their parents but obsessing over it is just pathetic.  Especially since Robert Patrick's character is flat-out impossible to like, much less wish for approval.  That's more in the nature of a personal thing, though, and has no bearing on the technical performance of the film or the actors therein, who were uniformly excellent.

All in all, it was a decent rental but definitely not a buy.  It made me want to run to iTunes and download even more Cash than I already had.