The Hindu Business Line : <I>Walk the Line</I>

WHEN a film comes highly recommended as Walk The Line does, reviews are reduced to being lip service for the already lauded. Still, there are reasons other than the Golden Globe wins and Oscar nominations, for why you shouldn't miss this film.

Both Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon amaze by their singing skills, particularly Phoenix who has captured well the gravel tone and freight train momentum of Johnny Cash's singing. More than what the actors have achieved is the surprising power of Cash's songs from several decades back; heard in a movie theatre they are an invitation to cleanse one's contemporary music sense and revert to something raw and capable of connecting to the human mind. Johnny Cash and The Tennessee Two may seem nothing compared to the chrome and cables of today's bands, save a small difference - they could sing, sing from the heart.

Not for nothing then that Walk The Line has one of the most engaging opening sequences in recent times; the camera travels through Folsom Prison - steady bass for menacing accompaniment - to a crowd of convicts waiting for Cash to come on stage. But Cash is brooding over a table saw, the film uses this as cue to cut back to the past and unravel the singer's story, starting with the close bond he shared with brother Jack and the latter's death from an accident involving a saw.

From there, it moves to Cash's air force posting in Germany (where he sees the film, Inside The Walls Of Folsom Prison, which was to inspire the song Folsom Prison Blues), the wife struggling to make sense of unpaid bills and a husband wanting to sing, Cash's meet-up with Sam Phillips of Sun Records, the initial tours, drugs, women and finally his long affair with singer June Carter, eventually culminating in his second marriage. A good three-fourths of this story is told in the interval between the table saw scene and Cash's arrival on stage at Folsom Prison with a full blown rendition of Cocaine Blues.

Phoenix as Cash and Witherspoon as Carter, have turned in great performances. Where the film tires a bit is in the depiction of genius, which after The Aviator and Ray have become clichéd given the inevitable mix of wine, women, drugs and human brilliance.

In fact, Phillips is said to have told Cash during his struggling days, "Johnny, go sin a little bit, (then) come back and sing me some songs." You sure have known all along that in many instances tortured minds haunted genius, but the assembly line production of their stories makes you fear the danger of over exposure. That ease with formula could make genius look easy.

Thankfully in the film, every time Cash sounds like Ray sounds like Howard Hughes, there is Cash's music to offset the sag in tempo. Plus, there is the undeniable appeal of a story set in an America, which lent ears for the unusual and backed it with opportunity. As a bored Phillips (Dallas Roberts) tells Cash when he sings gospel at his 1955 audition, "it has got nothing to do with believing in God Mr Cash, it has got everything to do with believing in your self."

Cash then sings Folsom Prison Blues, his totally unprepared band picking up the chords as the song progresses, that moment following Phillip's remark launching the remarkable career of Johnny Cash.

Walk The Line releases here on March 3. Don't miss it.