Where were you?

I went to see Walk the Line yesterday evening. I admit I had fairly low expectations but I was happy to have them exceeded. The movie was good and Phoenix and Witherspoon were great. I’ve liked Phoenix since I saw him in Gladiator, a movie I wouldn’t say is memorable for its acting. I love his insane facial expressions especially his painful smiles and sneers. I have never much liked Reese Witherspoon but I am prepared to say she delivered an awesome performance in this movie.

I do feel though that the problem with biographies is the time frame of the story. It is impossible to catch the entirety of a person’s life in a film and not worth trying. But even to sum up a part of their life seems difficult. In Ray flashbacks were used to show the childhood and I thought that was generally pretty well done. In Walk the Line they just started at childhood and jumped to Cash enlisting in the army which wasn’t a terrible way to do things but it characterised their dealings with time. There were a lot of jumps in time which wasn’t how I’d ideally want to tell a story but I think they dealt well with the inherent constraints of the biographical story.

The singing was surprisingly good from all involved and I was especially surprised to find out that Joaquin Phoenix sang all of Cash's songs. Worth seeing especially if you like his music. It put a whole new spin on "I Hung My Head" for me.