Review of Walk the Line (2005) by Chris T — 28 Dec 2011

Excellent biopic of a true icon, Walk the Line focuses mainly on the development of Cash's relationship with June Carter. The film also covers Cash's early rise to fame as well as the tragic death of his older brother that changed the course of his life forever.

Both leads give absolutely superb performances, Phoenix especially does an fantastic of imitating Cash's iconic vocals. Witherspoon gives June Carter plenty of spirit and personality and is totally believable as Cash's driving force and rock when the times get tough.

Of course the soundtrack is key to film like this and Walk the line doesn't disappoint. It includes an absolutely superb cover of Bob Dylan's "It ain't me babe" along with Cash classics Walk the Line and Ring of Fire amongst many others. Both stars deserve a lot of credit for performing all of the tracks themselves especially as some of the songs are so widely known and loved.

It would have been nice to get a bit more background on Cash's musical development and how some of his iconic songs came about, but ultimately this story is about the relationship between Cash and Carter and on that level it works faultlessly.