Great Movie: Walk the Line (2005)

Walk the Line is one of those movies, when you come out of the movie theater and tell yourself “Decent movie but great acting performances.” The movie is a Johnny Cash biopic that came out back in the fall of 2005. What makes this movie a little different is that it’s not only a timeline and description of what happened in Johnny’s life. Those are actually a sidenote in this movie, the real story is the love interest between Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and June Carter (Reese Witherspoon).

The performance from the leads was simply drop-dead superb especially when you learn that they sang the song all by themselves after months of training. Instead of simply trying to imitate Johnny and June, Phoenix and Witherspoon became them. Joaquin Phoenix was the only actor on Earth who could have pulled this off as well as he did.Aside from the physical resemblance to Johnny Cash, Phoenix is a special type of actor because he really lives through his character, he never watches himself because he doesn’t want to make superficial corrections that he doesn’t feel as a character. You may not agree with how much of a lunatic he is in real life but that’s the trademark of a genius.

I always thought Reese Witherspoon was a talented actress from the days of Freeway and Election. However, since she broke through with Legally Blonde to become a mainstream name, she has worked harder to be a Hollywood star than an actress (especially since she won that Academy Award…) which has been really disappointing. As talented as I thought she was, I had my doubt she would come through as she did with June Carter. And come through, she did with a fabulous performance! Her on-stage charisma leaves place to insecurities and vulnerability off-the-stage. This is her most subtle and nuanced role to date and she did a terrific job of depicting June Carter’s multi-faceted persona. Now, if only she would take some risks and go back to more substantial roles than industrial romantic comedies…

Best scene of the movie was when they sang ‘It ain’t me babe’. This was a very powerful scene because of the looks and smile they were exchanging to each other, like accomplice of a misdeed in front of thousand of unknowing strangers, and then the camera cuts behind both of them and you can see Johnny’s wife (Ginnifer Goodwin) watching and knowing in the background. All of this without any dialogue. Very powerful scene simply because of how it was done.

Finally, you had to feel it for Johnny at the end after pursuing this June Carter for so long, that she would accept him and love him for who he is, that true love does exist and you have to pursue it relentlessly regardless of what life throws at you.

This is why I thought Walk the Line was a great movie! Discuss.