Walk the Line

It must be daunting to portray a legendary musician, but as Jamie Foxx proved in Ray, and Joaquin Phoenix confirms here, imitation is the purest form of talent. Smartly choosing to focus only on his early years, and particularly his complicated on-stage (and off) relationship with June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), Walk the Line uses a perfect blend of music and drama to succeed where so many other biopics fail. Cash, who died in 2003, just four months after Carter's passing, was a complicated man whose songs and stage presence hid the demons he had to deal with outside the limelight. The film is most effective when it focuses on Cash's rise to the top, particularly in the early days when he competed with other up-and-comers like Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Unlike many other musician flicks, where the star sounds polished and professional from the first gig, Phoenix (who does all his own singing) portrays the nerves an amateur Cash had to battle in the beginning of his career. Witherspoon also does her own singing, and holds her own as the woman who shared a compelling relationship with Cash for nearly 40 years after the movie ends. It is hard to imagine we will see two better performances this year—the Man in Black would have been proud.