Walk the Line (2005)

RE-view extravaganza!

Although I had picked up this movie months earlier, I had been saving it to watch with my mom. My mom, great though she is, never goes to the movies. She appearently used to go with my nana, but I have no understand of when or what movies they saw. I think they used to go to the downtown theatre, which closed when I was about 13. She once told me that the last movie she and my dad went to see in the theatre was The Godfather, which probably means that was the last movie my dad saw in the theatre.

And yet, I fully blame them for getting me hooked on movies.

Anyway, the point here is that I thought my mom would like this movie. When we were listening to the soundtrack at Christmas, my mom remarked that sometimes, not everytime, but sometimes, Joaquin Phoenix's voice could be mistaken for that of Johnny Cash.

After we watched the DVD together, I asked her what she thought. "Oh, it was good," she said. I blinked. "It was very good." My mom wasn't dismissive, she was emphatic, but still. "Very good"? Had I been mistaken about the quality of this film?

Yes and no. I don't think I was wrong about the performance, which are among the best from two highly talented actors. I think they do excellent work, and together that work makes the movie snap with electric energy.

Even so, the movie's sort of oddly paced. It speeds up and slows down, rushing through some perfomances, yet letting itself breath for beaitfully done scenes like the one in the diner near the beginning. She gets him to talk about Jack for the first time in years; she confesses to him all her feelings inadequacy as she stands in her family's shadow. Scenes like that are the stuff of great cinema.

I recall when I read Owen Gliberman's comment that WtL had the potential to become a "monster chick flick." I didn't get it at the time, but I can see it now. The film, probably conciously although it goes unmentioned, sets up Johnny's addiction in direct relation to his tortured, protracted romance with June. June turns him down for a kiss? He pops pills for the first time. He accidentally makes June cry? He rips a sink out of the wall, then scrambles to pick up the scattered pills and chase them with beer. He's like House, only with music instead of medicine. And, you know, real.

I wasn't wrong about Vivian, though. No offense to Goodwin, but what a harpy! Could she have resented his career a little more? She didn't want to him to talk about it? That's all he does! What the hell else is he going to talk about?

I admit that I may have over-estimated this movie when I originally reviewed it but only by a hair. It's still one of the best. New grade: A-