“Walk the Line” With the Heat of Great Performances
Believe the hype. Joaquin Phoenix as the Man in Black and Reese Witherspoon as his beloved June Carter Cash light up the screen with performances that are the embodiment of Oscar worthy. Phoenix and Witherspoon demonstrate a palpable chemistry, both in the on-stage scenes (where they do all their own singing) and in the depictions of Cash’s offstage troubles.
The film itself is just a little too conventional for its own good: Small town singer makes it big, falls under the spell of booze and pills, and gets his life back on track thanks to the love of a good woman. But it doesn’t matter. The leads are so good, so believable, it’s impossible to look away.
Grade: A
Rated PG-13 for some language, thematic material and depiction of drug dependency