Walk The Line - Review

Somehow I wonder how I hadn't previously watched Walk The Line before my boyfriend forced it upon me due to his interest in the subject of this musical biopic. Walk the Line follows the early life and career of country music star, Johnny Cash, showing his rise to fame, love affair with June Carter as well as the troubles he faced. Puerto Rican born Joaquin Phoenix, (also famous for his co-starring roll with Russell Crowe in Gladiator) plays the star, with Reese Witherspoon taking on the role of June Carter. Both play their parts exceptionally and well worthy of the Golden Globes won by the pair for this, as well as Witherspoon’s Oscar and BAFTA. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this film throughout, right from the off there was interesting plot and characters to interest the viewer straight away, I think that this is highly important for any bio-pic. Along with the famous life the subject needing to be interesting and worthy of its own 2 hour film, the childhood of the character must be intriguing in order for the movie to get off on a good foot and carry the film through. This is easily shown through similar musical biographic, Ray, with his interesting childhood and back story, the film is able to show extra elements to the character people could have been unaware of before they watched the film.

There are not many elements within the film that I can fault, even the actor's own singing; although not a patch on Cash's, Phoenix managed to show the passion and love Cash had for singing with the use of his own voice whilst not dragging the film down with it, this is also the case for Witherspoon. I was pleasantly surprised by the use of their own singing abilities, especially Witherspoon's due to my knowledge around her only really spanning from Legally Blonde to Four Christmases, neither of which are the most meaningful of performances. It begins to show her versatility and ability as an actress by branching out into this genre rather than the type cast rom-com girl that people usually refer to her as.

Admittedly, I am finding this one a little difficult to review as it was a few weeks ago when I actually watched this, and has just taken me so long to finally get round to reviewing it. But what I do have to say is that, it was a brilliantly put together film, interesting from start to finish and most defiantly worth a watch!