Movie Review - Walk the Line

Friday night I went to go see Walk the Line. For those not in the know, it's the story of Johnny Cash, albeit rather abbreviated. The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter. If you don't like Johnny Cash or country music, I don't know how much you'll like this movie. But if you do, I think you'll love it. And I thought it was pretty good.

The movie starts out when Cash was a youngster, playing with his older brother and keeping out of the way of his alchoholic father. After a rather prominent event in his childhood, the movie skips ahead to his first marriage. The meat of the movie starts here and runs through his eventual marriage to June Carter. I thought Phoenix did a great job as Cash. Oscar-worthy? I don't think so. But he did a really great job with the acting as well as the singing (both he and Reese sang all their own stuff). Reece also did a nice job playing Carter. I just think she is designed to play the role of a southerner (i.e. Sweet Home Alabama).

It was great to see the recreation of Cash sharing the stage with a young Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. It made me wish that I could have seen some of those shows. I can't imagine what a show like that would have been like. I'm giving Walk the Line a "9."