Walk The Line
I have to admit that up until this whole Walk the Line phenomena started and he became cool again, the Johnny Cash I knew was the old coot doing all those kindda funny yet sorta cool gravel-voiced covers of songs by modern bands I liked, like Soundgarden, U2, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Nick Cave and Beck. Apparently he had, like, a whole career before that, and even wrote a couple of songs himself! Who knew?!
Now I haven't seen Ray , so I can't comment on the “it's just Ray with white people” criticism going around, but as a music biopic this does kind of feel familiar. It's not the filmmakers' fault exactly; it's just that nearly every famous music star seems to have the same come-from-nothing-find-fame-and-glory-goes-to-their-head-drug-addiction-downfall-find-redemption-through-love/God/or-both-or-die-tragically-young life trajectory. I'm not saying Cash's life wasn't exceptional, but when crammed into a movie you do recognise all the beats.
The first act of Walk The Line flirts a bit with rock-n-roll history, with Cash's rise to fame. I'm sure I'm not the only one left wanting to see more of the days he spent hanging around with Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, and as much as I liked this stuff, I don't think we got to see any really good stories about these notorious hell-raisers. The film does play it reasonably safe here, and despite all his acknowledged indiscretions, it never wants to make Cash out to be too much of a devil, lest we stop caring about him as a ‘character'. The film then shifts gears as we see The Man In Black (no, not Will Smith) spiral into the rock-n-roll cliché drug-addicted downward spiral, with the third act confirming that the film is first and foremost a love story, as Cash overcomes his drug demons and self-destruction and finds salvation with his beloved June.
It's a nice enough movie, with some good (if not always compelling) performances from the leads, and some great songs, which always helps. In fact every time Joaquin was on stage as Cash the film had my full and undivided attention, but outside of that it was a bit of a struggle.