MikePadgett.com

Walk the Line

— Demons and diamonds in this biopic of the late Johnny Cash.”

• Director: James Mangold
• United States, 2005
• 

Mangold has coaxed out an Oscar®-worthy acting performance before. Angelina Jolie won Best Supporting Actress for Girl, Interrupted in 1999. But just as then, I felt that the splendid cast in Walk the Line papered over dull cinematography.

Johnny Cash lived a rollercoaster life. The performer overcame a difficult childhood to attain star status, before falling prey to drug and alcohol addiction more than once. His enduring fame was secured by his popular and often pioneering work as a musician. The film, however, tends to focus on the personal – and obviously more dramatic – aspects of Cash’s life.

Mangold’s images were only occasionally memorable. Fortunately the accounts given by leads Phoenix and Witherspoon balanced the books, perhaps heralding the newfound maturity of this particular generation of actors.