The life and loves of Johnny Cash.
Ah the big musical biopic, it just keeps coming back every few years and I can understand the reasons. Popular musicians are already larger than life figures; they are idolized and envied by millions. Their life stories are also easily filmable; at their core there is always a rag to riches tale which is maybe the most popular kind of tale around.
The actual viewing was kinda strange to me. I missed this movie at the time (2005) because I knew practically nothing about Johnny Cash. I even managed to see the Parody, “Walk Hard: the story of Dewey Cox”, before seeing the original. In spite of this I actually quite enjoyed the movie, I even think that my enjoyment was heightened by the fact that I had no idea what was going to happen and what happened to Cash in the end, I watched it as a pure story and I can say that it is a good one.
The plot is a stock musical biopic plot with a lot of booze, drug issues and general angst but luckily we get one of these only every few year so it didn’t feel too much contrived, even if I must say that I would like to see, just for once, a movie about a musician who become famous without doing hard drugs, dumping his sweetheart and being a moron.
Where the concept is a little bit repetitive (but is not really right to tinker with the life of somebody) the direction was very good and the acting was nothing short of exceptional. Joachim Phoenix literally inhabits Johnny Cash using a thousand mannerisms, he even sings himself! This is the performance that catapulted him the stardom, which he strangely squandered in a Kauffmanlike fake doc.
Reese Witherspoon also gives a very fine performance, with a deserved Oscar nod for actress in a leading role, and reminds us why she got that superstar status that seems to elude many of her colleagues. Her face is so lively and she can transmit so many emotions where the majority of the starlets today know only how to pout.
A little nagging point about the story. Even if this is nominally Johnny Cash bio it is not really that interested in his life and music. This is more the love story between him and June Carter and even touchy subjects like his relationship with his father are not really resolved. This doesn’t means that the movie is worse, quite the contrary indeed because it acquire a focus that most biopic are lacking, just that it’s a slightly misleading one and that if you are more interested in his music you should probably buy his records.
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