Joaquin Phoenix < Johnny Cash

Walk the Line is pretty mediocre. The performances are largely strong, especially Robert Patrick playing against type as a brooding meanie, and as I mentioned to my movie buddy Katie as the credits rolled, "I learned things!" Fans of the Man in Black, especially those who haven't read either of the autobiographies upon which the film is based, will doubtless enjoy the film's rehashing of Cash's early bio.

Unfortunately, though, the movie has little to offer to viewers who have only a passing interest in Cash. I think there are two main reasons for this. The first is the fact that Cash's stories come off as nothing more than a countrified iteration of the hackneyed Rock'n'Roll lifestyle disaster narrative, and in the process Cash never once displays any qualities aside from an apparent musical talent to earn audiences' sympathies. The second reason has to do with the fact that Cash's musical talent is only asserted by the film, and never actually demonstrated, since Joaquin Phoenix is called upon to do all of the singing. I'm not certain I'm in the majority on this one, but I found Phoenix's voice off-putting (and just off) throughout, with the notable exception of the scene that depicts the recording of At Folsom Prison. I actually feel rather strongly that the apparently preferred practice of having actors in biographical stories of musicians do their own singing is an artistic misstep, insofar as it wholly blurs/obscures what I consider to be the main event of any singer's celebrity.

In any case, as we were leaving the theater Katie - who is a much bigger Cash fan than I will ever be, and who didn't mind Phoenix's simulation - heard someone say, "I've never heard his music and now I never want to." It is unfortunate that someone leaving a movie that purports to tell Johnny Cash's story can make the first part of that statement and have it be true - and, further, that I can sympathize with the second part at all.