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Walk the Line (2005)
 
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Director:
James Mangold |
COUNTRY
USA |
GENRE
Drama/Music/Biography |
NORWEGIAN
TITLE
Walk the Line |
RUNNING
TIME
136
minutes |
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Producer:
James Keach
Cathy Konrad |
Screenwriter (based on books by Johnny Cash and Patrick Carr):
Gill Dennis
James Mangold |
Review
The biopic formula is
well-known, some might even say tediously repetitive. And that's not
necessarily an insignificant argument. But its an argument that's hard
to provide much depth after seeing, James Mangold's Walk the Line
- an incredibly rich, poignant and important document of the history of
rock'n roll, and one of its finest pioneers. Joaquin Phoenix is
absolutely magnificent in what will probably stand as the role of his
life. His looks, energy, terror and - above all - singing voice
encompasses everything we know and remember about the man in black
himself. With an inspired Reese Witherspoon as June Carter by his side,
Walk the Line offers a beautiful and hard-fought romance that
almost seems too scripted to be true. The scene including the final
marriage proposal would in many films come off as too plotted, but how
can you resist something as romantic as that when it's factual?
Mangold directs (as
usual, see Cop Land)
with a fabulously confident pace and command. He demands his viewer to
get sucked into his narrative. And the film has plenty to offer in that
respect, combining its extremely interesting characters with potent
drama, great music and a beautiful rendition of those magical early days
of rock music. Musically, Walk the Line is at its best through a
number of compelling live performance scenes, in which Phoenix'
performance reaches its peak. I was especially enthralled by the band's
first live performance scene (playing "Get Rhythm"), in which we get glimpses of both Jerry Lee
Lewis and Elvis Presley and the former hollers to Cash as he enters:
"Nobody follows the Killer". Scripted or not, that's a fairly unique
little piece of rock'n roll history.
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